BBB Offers Tips for Cyber Monday

While Black Friday was the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, today is Cyber Monday, which the Better Business Bureau says has replaced Black Friday as the most popular day to shop for the holidays.

Cyber Monday represents the day where people head online to shop.

With that in mind, the Better Business Bureau of Atlanta, Athens, and Northeast Georgia is offering 10 tips for staying safe if shopping online this holiday.

The top tip from the BBB is to protect your computer with the most recent updates for spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware software, along with having a secure firewall.

Along those lines, the agency reminds people to protect their personal information by reading all website privacy information and checking to see if an online purchase is secure by looking for the “s” in “https.”

The Better Business Bureau also encourages people to shop on trustworthy websites, pay with a credit card, keep documentation of all orders, and check credit card statements often.

In addition, BBB officials said people need to beware of deals that sound too good to be true and beware of “phishing” e-mails, such as e-mails that claim problems with an order or account in order to lure the buyer into revealing financial information.

Finally, the BBB said people need to know their rights when it comes to online purchases.

For more information, go to www.bbb.org.