Expert Advice on Internet Security

Shopping on the internet can feel like walking up to a stranger, opening your wallet and inviting them take your money, then giving them all your personal contact details at the same time – then hoping wildly that something you wanted will turn up in the post. Magazines are full of horror stories about identity theft, and clothes purchases are plagued with numerous problems - will it fit? What if the cut isn’t right for you and the sleeves dangle down to your knees? What if those gorgeous heels are too narrow for your feet?

A host of security concerns accompany online shopping. Will your purchase arrive through the mail? What if it’s stolen from your mailbox? What are your details being used for? Will you start receiving piles of junk to your mailboxes, both digital and physical? Will you see plane tickets to Cyprus and bills for electrical goods bought in Tokyo the next time you check your credit card statement?

Online shopping can also be fantastic. You can buy from all over the world, order merchandise, books and clothing that no one else in town has ever seen. The world is your shopping oyster when you’re armed with a credit card and internet connection.

In a classic online nightmare, recently a site called www.designerbrandoutlet.com was shut down by Netregistry for foul play. The company appeared to be a legitimate enough online clothing store, with a Pymble, NSW-based physical address listed, a phone number and email. Complaints in an Australian eBay forum revealed that a woman who had purchased a Chloe dress from the site to wear as a wedding dress had never received the garment.

Other sites like Complaints Board held a dozen complaints, with subject lines like ‘Item Not Received’, ‘Complete Rip Off’, ‘Fraud and Scam’, ‘Non Delivery’. Upon calling the phone numbers and emailing the addresses provided, people found no answer. Claiming to sell genuine designer clothes at bargain prices, Designer Brand Outlet failed to deliver a single genuine label item to a customer. On the rare occasion that a garment was actually received, the item was poorly made, the wrong size, and didn’t resemble the piece of clothing the consumer had selected.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC) acted on complaints received from Australia, the UK and the USA by tracking down the owners of the website and discovering the pair behind the web scam were based in China. Brett Fenton, Chief Operating Officer at Netregistry says that upon receiving notification from ACCC of the legitimate complaints, “Netregistry immediately undelegated the domain, removing the website from the internet..” In instances like this, the website owners are notified by email and advised to contact the ACCC for more information. “We cooperate with any statutory body when it comes to doing the right thing by consumers,” Fenton says of Netregistry’s policies. Luckily however, a fraud case like this on our domains only comes up about once a year.

How Can You Trust A Website?

Physical, offline contact information is vital to any online store. Do your research before making a purchase by quickly check the details by calling the phone number provided. “Consumers will only need to do that once when they start shopping at a new website, and it can save a lot of hassle down the line,” Fenton says.

Any portal that requires you to make a payment online should be certified. “Look for security certificates. Sites that are Verified by Visa are the most likely to be trustworthy,” Fenton says. If the website passes you on to a third party, check that site is security certified too. PayPal is secure, and the most common used.

How Can You Make YOUR Website Trustworthy?

Your site needs to be as safe an environment for the customer as a physical, walk-in shop would be. “As a merchant, you want to process transactions as securely as possible,” Fenton advises.

• People trust credit card transfers because they can, depending on the credit card provider, come with the added safety of being able to cancel fraudulent transactions.
• Money orders or Western Union Transfers when paying for products come across as a little technologically backward these days, so stick with something like StoreXpress that keeps payments to you secure.
• Include offline contact details, and respond to customer enquiries.
• User-generated content like a forum, where customers can comment about your service, will help to prove you’re genuine and make potential clients feel more secure

Privacy Policies

“As a consumer, there should be a privacy policy at any point on a website where you are required to enter your details,” Fenton says. The privacy policy should be clearly visible and should explain where, why and how your details will be used. If there’s no privacy policy, don’t complete the transaction.

As a website owner, you need to make sure that a clear and comprehensive privacy policy is available for customers.

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