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HINTS AND TIPS FOR SAFELY SHOPPING ONLINE
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secure ordering
We have all heard about the risks of giving your credit card out over the internet. Honestly, it really can be quite safe, you just have to know what to look out for and find places you can trust. That's why USG is here. Ultimately, the choice is yours and we're not responsible for any fraud you may encounter when ordering from the shops we list, but our reviews and these following tips may help you shop safely.
There is one sure fire way to know that the information you're giving out is secure. At the bottom of your browser in the status bar, you'll see a lock icon that is closed when a page is secure. This simply means that any information you give out is being encrypted when being sent across the Intenet to the online shop.
Often a site will claim it is secure, when in fact it's actually only half secure. Many times, you'll be asked to supply your name, address and email on a non-secure page, then the next page that requests your credit card number will be secure (the lock symbol will appear). There is risk there that someone could get your personal info, but your credit card info will still be safe. The choice is really up to you whether you want to risk ordering from them.
Personally, I have ordered from completely secure sites and completely insecure sites, and 3 years later I have still not encountered any credit card fraud. I guess I'm just lucky though.
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foreign language sites
Many great online stores are in foreign languages. I have never let this stop me from ordering great products from other places. You'll be surprised at how many tools are at your disposal on the web to help you decipher the sites. After you stumbled through a few, you also find that it gets easier, and you'll get to know the common words for things like name, address, city, etc...
The tools i'm talking about are translation sites. you simply enter words or phrases in one language, and the site will convert what you put in, into your language of choice. Now, keep in mind, that these translation sites are not perfect in their translations, as language are not easy to translate, but with any luck, the translation will be close and you can figure out what the phrase or word is. Here's a link to my favorite translation site:
GOOGLE TRANSLATION
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currency exchange calculators
Another usefull tool i find comes in handy is a currency exchange calculators. Make sure you read a site carefully to find out what currency prices are listed in. Some sites are nice enough to include currency calculators on their sites and other allow you to actually shop in many common currencies. but if they don't, to insure you know just how much you're paying before you click submit try running the cost through this currency converter:
THE UNIVERSAL CURRENCY CONVERTOR
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