TITLE: “Tips for Online Shopping Safety”
EXACT PURPOSE: To educate my listeners on the do’s and don’ts while shopping online to ensure their financial safety.
INTRODUCTION:
We are almost into summer and before we know it we will be right back into the holidays! How many of you own a tablet or a smart phone? How many of you find yourself using these devices more and more as you realize how much they are capable of doing? The rapid growth of these technologies is providing us, as consumers, with tools that make our shopping experience easier and less stressful. Are you going to shop online this year? There are many people who shop online and have done so for several years without incident. Considering all the internet transactions that take place, various studies suggest that the percentage of those that are fraudulent are actually very small. Nonetheless, it only takes one time to put your financial world into a downward spiral. Today, I hope to empower you with some knowledge of what you can do to reduce the likelihood of being a target of fraud while shopping online. I’m going to give you tips on where to shop safely, what to look for, things about the technologies you’re going to use to do your shopping and finally tips on purchasing things on the internet.
So, let’s get started!
BODY: I. Where to shop safely. A. Stick to the retailers that you know. 1. Go directly to the retailer’s website. Avoid clicking on links from other pages that you think are going to take you there. 2. Beware of any misspellings on the domain address of the page. B. When in doubt check them out!! There are several ways that you can check this. 1. Is it a secure site? a. Sites are secure through a process of encryption, which is the technology that scrambles sensitive information (like your credit card number) so that only the designated merchant can read it. b. Look at the website’s URL and make sure that the address
References: Griffith, Eric, ed. "11 Tips for Safe Online Shopping." http://www.foxnews.com. PCMag.com, 2010. Web. 10 Apr 2012. . "Security." SafeShopping.org. Ed. Consumer Protection Working Group. American Bar Association Law Section. Web. 10 Apr 2012. . Microsoft.com. "Online Shopping Safety Tips | Microsoft Safety & Security Center." Safety and Security Center. Microsoft, 2011. Web. 10 Apr 2012 . Hunt, Leslie, ed. "6 tips for safe online shopping." http://www.bankrate.com. BankRate, 2006. Web. 11 Apr 2012. . Stay Safe Online. "Online Shopping | Stay Safe Online." Stay Safe Online | Brought to You by the National Cyber Security Alliance. StaySafeOnline - NCSA. Web. 10 Apr 2012 . Surfnetkids.com. "The Safe Online Shopper: Internet Safety." Surfing the Net with Kids: Educational Site Reviews and Kids Games. Surfnetkids.com - Inc. Web. 11 Apr 2012. . Magid, Larry. "Tips for Safe Online Shopping | Safe and Secure - CNET News." Technology News - CNET News. CBS Interactive, 10 Apr 2012. Web.