Shop online

No place is 100% safe 24/7.

Tips edited from: 14 Tips for Safe Online Shopping

We all know Amazon.com carries everything under the sun; likewise, just about every major retail outlet has an online store, from Target to Best Buy to Home Depot. Beware of misspellings or sites using a different top-level domain (.net instead of .com, for example)—those are the oldest tricks in the book.

Never buy anything online using your credit card from a site that doesn't have SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption installed—at the very least. You'll know if the site has SSL because the URL for the site will start with HTTPS—instead of just HTTP.

When possible, default to giving up as little personal data as possible. Major sites get breached all the time.

Change your passwords often and utilize uncrackable passwords.

View electronic statements for your credit card, debit card, and checking accounts. Look for any fraudulent charges, even originating from payment sites like PayPal and Venmo.

You should definitely only buy online with a credit card. If your debit card is compromised, scammers have direct access to your bank funds.

If you see something wrong, pick up the phone to address the matter quickly.

You need to protect against malware with regular updates to your antivirus program.

You should probably also use a virtual private network (VPN).

If you're wary of a site, perform your due diligence.

Don't be embarrassed if you get taken for a ride while online shopping. Instead, get very, very mad. Complain to the seller. If you don't get satisfaction, report it to the Federal Trade Commission, your state's attorney general, even the FBI. That's probably going to work best if you buy in the US, rather than with foreign sites

 

Wal-mart sells lots of stuff online that is not sold in their stores.

 

Research retailers online to make sure they're legitimate. Enable 2FA for all online transactions.

 

Online shopping - I've never had a minute's trouble with Amazon. I've been using them since about 2009. As Salty has said, the military Exchange system is excellent. I am a military widow, and have privileges there. The only other online shopping I do is with Ulta. I also like Instacart for groceries for a few reasons including I hate grocery shopping alone, it's a sorta long walk from my car to my apartment and my back is messed up and I'm very bad about impulse buying. Also, from what I understand, if your debit card has a VISA logo on it, there are some consumer protections.

 

If you pay with paypal or a credit card, they will often give you your money back if you call them and tell them what happened.

Amazon will give you your money back for any seller on their site.

 

Oh, and for used books, Betterworldbooks has better initial service, but Thriftbooks will always give you a refund. You can get some really good deals on used Bible reference books from these two sellers and from Amazon. Books that were previously library books are less likely to have underlining and highlighting, but will have some stamps and pockets. Library discards are often labeled as such.