How to shop online securely

Security advice for your online purchase

It is increasingly common for us to shop online, but be careful! You must take into account a number of factors to protect your bank details when making payments.

It is very important that you avoid connecting to an open Wi-Fi network when making a purchase. You should also be suspicious of the 'bargains' you find online. So, when making a purchase, it is recommended that you always choose trusted stores.

To identify if the stores are secure, always make sure that the address of the website starts with 'https' and has a padlock in the address bar. And also whether the page on which you are shopping is registered on the Secure Electronic Commerce (CES) service, as you will be adding extra security to your online payments.

More tips:

• Use your common sense. Is this offer too good to be true? It's almost certainly a scam.
• Adverts on social media aren't always trustworthy. Before you click, consider whether it's trustworthy by checking the web address and analysing the page.
• Shops with addresses containing strange characters or with unusual domain (not .com or .es) are very suspicious.
• Look at the layout and content as well. A badly designed website or one that has spelling mistakes may have been designed to steal personal or payment data. Authentic online shops are usually well designed for customers.
• If a discount is above 55%, there's reason to be suspicious.
• On a secure shopping website contact details, as well as the refund and returns policies should be clearly displayed.
• Before buying from an unknown shop, check the customer reviews. Search for the name of the page with the words "review" or "scam", to ensure that it has a good reputation.