Online Consumer Self-Defense Explained
A National Consumers League Survey reveals that consumers
are not adequately informed of some basic online shopping facts:
- "69 percent of consumers incorrectly believe that it is safer to pay
for an online purchase by check or money order rather than credit
card," not realizing that encryption is used to protect credit card numbers.
- "Federal law requires
online orders to be delivered by the time stated or, if no time
period was stated, within thirty days."
- "Only 10 percent of consumers said they were worried that the
seller may be fraudulent," though that is actually a greater
threat than theft of credit card numbers. A nice-looking Web site doesn't
necessarily prove legitimacy.
Most consumers were happy with their e-commerce experiences, but one in
five reported problems with online purchases. Here's a list of
the problems that online shoppers may face:
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Online Consumer Self-Defense Explained 
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Time to complete:
| A minute to read this list |
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Money you'll spend:
| $0 |
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What you'll get:
| Consumer self-defense awareness |
Common shopping problems:
These are the most
common problems reported by online shoppers in the National Consumers League Survey. You can avoid most of them
by shopping only at widely respected online stores.
- 8%: Products or services that were misrepresented
- 6%: Products or services that were paid for, but never
received. When you shop online, learn when your order is supposed to arrive,
and get a tracking number so you can track the delivery progress
at sites such as UPS.com.
- 3%: Charges that were billed, but never authorized ("cramming")
- 1%: Charges that were more than the agreed price
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Further Reading:
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