Keeping your credit card safe this holiday season

It’s the season for gifting, and this will involve a lot of online shopping. Besides the convenience and other accrued benefits such as massive discounts and free delivery, online shopping has its risks. Most of these risks are internet related. They include identity theft, credit card fraud, phishing campaigns, and scams. In this article, we’ll share tips on how to keep your credit card secure during this holiday season.

Use strong, unique passwords and keep them safe

Securing anything that involves the internet requires at least a strong unique password. Your online shopping account contains lots of information, and one of them may include your card details. Keeping your card safe starts with securing your account. Nowadays, creating a strong password is no hassle. All you need is a reputable password manager. This utility can create a strong, unique password, store it, and also help you manage it when the need arises.

Make sure you are on the right online shopping site

Due to phishing campaigns and online shopping scams, you can get a promotional email with enticing details such as a 70% discount. You may not know it’s a scam and you may proceed to open the link. Most of the time, cybercriminals can spoof a site and masquerade it, essentially, it will look legit to an unsuspecting online shopper. What follows next will be devastating as you will give out your sensitive details including personally identifying information and your card details.

Every time you shop online, check whether you are using the real site. If a site is relatively new, check for online reviews and what shopping experts say about it.

Keep tabs on your bank account

You should always know about any transaction that involves your money. Most banks usually send alerts and notification when you withdraw funds, buy something with your card and so on. Since your card is linked with your bank account, you will be able to know about any fraudulent activities such as online shopping you haven’t initiated. When this happens, call your bank and have them block your card immediately.

Keep your credit card details private

Avoid shoulder surfers when keying in your card details. Also, the best way to keep your card details secure is by the use of virtual cards and mobile wallets. They are accepted in most places, and they only use tokens to represent your credit card number. Also, you have to authenticate any transaction before it can go through.

Use IPBurger VPN when shopping online via public WIFI

Public WIFI is generally insecure, and it’s the hub of cybercriminals waiting for unsuspecting users. In public WIFI, cybercriminals can use various techniques such as spoofing and eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks and other endpoint attacks to gain access to information such as credit card details.

IPBurger VPN encrypts all your internet traffic, and this keeps your data invisible to any prying eyes. Besides security and privacy, IPBurger will also assign you a virtual IP address. With this IP address, you can globetrot to any place you want while on the internet. This means you can enjoy various discounts from many online vendors.