1. Check the seller’s customer satisfaction ratings.
Other people’s experiences with the merchant that you are considering are often an excellent gauge of what to expect when you order.

Review other user’s comments and check out the seller’s rating on sites like Google Shopping. Low “star” ratings may provide a red flag that cautions you to find a more reputable seller.

2. Check the Better Business Bureau site to see if there are a large number of complaints about the seller.
The Better Business Bureaus of the United States and Canada are excellent resources to find out specific information about merchants, including whether or not they have any complaints against them related to delivery, product issues, or refund or exchange problems.
You can also obtain their business addresses and corporate contact information, which might allow you to circumvent the frontline call center circus of endless automated prompts (i.e. “Press 1 to speak to a semi-live person”).

3. Whenever possible, use a credit card for payment.
According to the American Bar Association’s website, safeshopping.org, it is best to use a credit card when paying online because federal law protects credit card users from fraud and limits individual liability to $50. Some card issuers might even waive the $50 liability fee or pay it for you.
Consider opening a separate account for buying online so your online purchases don’t get lost in the sea of Starbuck’s coffee transactions in your online banking ledger. Also, look into virtual credit cards if your card issuer offers this service. Some card issuers will give you a one-time use virtual card number that you can use for a single transaction if you are concerned about the security of a particular merchant.

4. Never enter your credit card information on a page that is not encrypted.
Look for the “https” and the padlock icon to ensure a site is secure.
When shopping online, plastic is the preferred me­thod of payment. However, you must remember that your credit card number is static. It doesn't change unless you close and reopen an account, and once your credit card information is online, it can be compromised if it falls into the wrong hands.
There are some measures online shoppers can take to minimize their risk. First and foremost is ensuring that all online shopping is carried out only on secure sites. To be certain the page you're on is secure, look for a tiny padlock icon, usually found in the top right corner of your browser's URL bar. You can also tell if the site is secure by looking for an "s" in the URL address. While non secure sites and pages begin with http://, secure sites begin with https://.

5. Go directly to the seller’s site rather than clicking a “coupon” link that was sent to you by an unknown source.
Scammers can often use a tactic called cross-site scripting to craft a hyperlink that appears to be the actual merchant site but actually relays your credit card information to the scammer when you put your payment information into the payment web form. Unless you can verify that a coupon came from the actual vendor’s site to which you have already subscribed, it’s best to avoid random coupons with unknown origins.

6. If you are ordering from a shared computer (i.e. the library, computer lab, or a work PC), log out of the shopping site and clear the browser history, cookies, and page cache.
This seems like a no-brainer, but if you’re using a shared machine, always log out of the store website and clear your browser’s page cache, cookies, and history when you are finished ordering something, or the next guy who sits down at the PC you were using might just have himself a little shopping spree on your dime.

7. Never give your social security number or birthday to any online retailer.
Vendors should never ask you for your social security number unless you are applying for in-store financing or something to that effect. If they are trying to require you to enter a social security number just to order a product, then they are most likely scammers. Run away fast. While your birthday may seem like an innocent enough piece of data to give out, it’s just one more of the three to four data elements needed by a scammer to steal your identity.

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