‘Tis the season to be jolly! It’s the most wonderful time of year… Christmas is upon us. With the season comes gift hunting, particularly online shopping as many people are now using this option to purchase gifts.

Online shopping is convenient as it is just a series of clicks on the vendor’s website and, within a few days, your gifts arrive. While we shop online we must protect our debit and credit card information, here are a few safety tips:

1.Be aware of new vendors

New vendors are now surfacing with attractive items, good prices and discounts. These vendors may be legitimate businesses seeking to increase sales for the season however, they can also be scammers with a fake website looking to exploit you. To prevent this, do some research on the company, see if anyone is talking about the company and read the reviews on the products. Do not enter your card information until you are certain this is a legitimate business.

2.Ensure the website is secure

Enter your personal and financial information, passwords and account information into a secure website only. In order for a website to be secure, the URL must begin with “” and your browser should show a closed padlock icon. This means that communication is encrypted and SSL verifies authenticity.

3.Check your credit card statements regularly

This should be done at all times, but particularly this season when your online shopping has increased and there may be charges applied to your purchases that you may have missed at the point of purchase.

4.Strong passwords are a must

Do not be nonchalant about having strong passwords; put some thought into creating one. A strong password can be alphanumeric; or one of the best password approaches is to use a phrase. You can use the first letter of each word in the phrase to create the password.

5.Keep a track of your purchases

Save all emails, invoices and receipts that you receive from the vendor in a folder; you can also opt to print these documents and save accordingly. Track your purchase online to confirm that it has been shipped and is in transit to your destination.

6.This season is busy for many of us and while it may save you time to do some shopping at the airport, salon, coffee shop and other locations on a free public Wi-Fi network, it is not recommended. Hackers can easily access these public networks and retrieve your financial information.

As the year comes to a close we want to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and holy Christmas. Safe online shopping to all!

Gillian Murray is the marketing officer at tTech Limited. She can be contacted at 656-8467/656-8448 or by email at