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Cyber Monday safe shopping tips

Submitted by Merlin on November 28, 2005 - 4:43am.

“Cyber Monday” is a new one to me, but allegedly today is the biggest online shopping day of the year. Yay, capitalism.

Get out there, type up some bargains, and have fun; but be sure to shop safe. It’s a crazy world, and somewhere there’s a 14-year-old Russian kid who needs one more identity theft to buy that Xbox 360. Good-looking tips for playing it safe online:

  • Online Shopping Tips [Privacy Rights Clearinghouse] - “We recommend you print out at least one copy of the web page(s) describing the item you ordered as well as the page showing company name, postal address, phone number, and legal terms, including return policy. Keep it for your own records for at least the period covered by the return/warranty policy.”
  • Safeshopping.org [American Bar Association] - “Do you want to visit a site without revealing your identity? Visit www.anonymizer.com, then type the web address of the site into the ‘Anonymizer’ web browser. The free Anonymizer service includes a slight delay in accessing pages; for a fee, you can access these pages with no delay.”
  • Shopping Online For The Holidays: Twelve Tips To Protect Yourself From Cyber Grinches, Scams And Schemes [Better Business Bureau] - “Be suspicious if someone contacts you unexpectedly and asks for your personal information. Identity thieves send out bogus emails about problems with consumers’ accounts to lure them into providing their personal information. Legitimate companies don’t operate that way.”

As far as price comparisons and bargin-hunting, I’ve used Deal News, Price Grabber, and Dealazon, but I’m new to the (media-generated) world of Black Friday/Cyber Monday Mania. Got a favorite site with good deals to share? Any ninja shopping techniques you’ve mastered?

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First off, this is not...

Submitted by Jeff Martin (not verified) on November 28, 2005 - 6:28am.

First off, this is not an advertisement, I have no connection to the following site. I found it while Christmas shopping. It is GameExpress.com. I was going to order some PS2 & GBA games from WalMart, but found them cheaper at GameExpress. I ordered at 3:52pm last Wednesday and they shipped everything at 5:02pm the same day. Based on UPS tracking, I should receive the package on Wednesday. Another big service plus is that to find out how much shipping would be, you only had to enter your zip code. They didn’t require me to create an account or go through the entire ordering process to find out shipping costs like a lot of sites do now.

The one negative in the whole process was they only allow you to ship to your billing address. They said it is due to too many fradulent orders, which I understand, but I typically ship to my work address. A minor hassle, but the customer service outshines that minor negative.

Jeff Martin