With more and more e-shops getting setup everyday, online usage is becoming even more popular. The possibility of receiving online payments has given a totally new dimension to shopping. Now, you can not only shop from the comfort of your home, you can even get discounts on these products. This is really amazing. No need to bother about the weather, no need to worry about the traffic jams or any other thing. Just go to an e-shop, select a product, make use of their online payment-acceptance facility to make the payment and be ready to receive the goods at your doorstep.
With online processing facility, starting a business (an online business) has become just unbelievably easy.
However, there is nothing without pitfalls. One of the pitfalls of online usage is the possibility of online fraud. This online fraud can happen in two ways. The first one is related to the company, on whose website you made online payment for purchase of goods; this company itself could be fraudulent i.e. it could take the online payment from you but not deliver the goods to you. Moreover, they could use the details of your (received through the filling up of online payment form by you) for fraudulent purposes. The second type of fraud is committed by fraudsters who use various softwares/devices to capture the details of online payments (as you enter them on the online payment form of a website). These softwares are popularly known as spyware and these fraudsters as online spies. The spyware works by capturing keystrokes or taking screenshots of whatever you do on your computer and then passes it on to the spy. However, there are anti-spyware softwares available which can be used to counter such spyware.
So, the advent of online usage facility is a boon to us. However, you must exercise caution when making online payments e.g. don’t access your bank accounts or make online payments from internet cafes (unless you are absolutely sure about the credentials of the internet café).
