It can be difficult to separate fraudulent online stores from reliable ones.
During Black Week, physical stores and online stores are filled with discounts. Karoliina Vuorenmäki
The discount week known as Black Week brings with it a large number of offers for both physical stores and online stores. However, the consumer should be careful, warns OP.
If the offer seems too good to be true, it might be. The OP urges you to pay special attention to the reliability of online stores and the choice of payment method.
Director responsible for OP’s everyday financial services Masa Peura advises to make sure before buying that you are dealing with a reliable online store.
– Special caution is recommended when dealing with smaller and more unknown online stores. Fraudulent online stores are very professionally built these days, and it may be difficult to separate them from the trustworthy ones, says Peura in OP’s press release.
Check these out
Before entering personal information, such as credit card information, you should make sure that you are connected to a secure network. You can check the encrypted connection from the address bar of the browser.
Peura also recommends checking that the online store has indicated the company’s name, country and street address, email address and phone number in its contact information. You can also read the experiences of other consumers about online shopping in the discussion forums.
You should keep your mobile bank’s notifications in use. In this case, you can get real-time information on your credit card and bank account transactions on your phone. Suspicious charges should be reported immediately. You should also update the security limits of your own payment card to meet the needs of your own card use.
Prefer a credit card
OP recommends its customers to prefer credit card payments. When you pay with a credit card, the credit card company acts as a buffer between your own money and the online store. The amount of purchases is debited from the credit account and not directly from the bank account.
Pursuant to the Consumer Protection Act, purchases paid by credit card are covered by purchase protection. This creates security in problematic situations. If, for example, an item ordered from an online store does not arrive, you can apply for compensation from the credit card company.