Secure online shopping

Because of the corona virus, an increasing number of people stay at home and shop online. What should you look out for to stay secure when shop­ping online?

Whether food, books, smart­phones or flowers are involved: Due to the lock­down, online shops are expe­ri­encing a vir­tual run on their goods. For many, this is the only way to obtain cer­tain things. On the other hand, there are many people new to this way of shop­ping, and you might just be asking your­self what to look out for to stay secure?

To be able to shop as securely as pos­sible on the Internet, you should follow these recommendations:

• Shop only at trust­worthy online shops
  You should check out the trader you are dealing with before you buy online every time. Next to large and familiar traders, there are also many unknown ones. You can tell a rep­utable trader by the fol­lowing characteristics: 
  • Does the web­site have a trans­parent design? Are T&Cs and their con­tact details (tele­phone, e-mail, etc.) listed?
  • Is it a Swiss provider?
  • Do they have a free-of-charge hotline?
  • Enter their name into a search engine: Are the reports you find pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive ones?
• Check that the con­nec­tion is secure before entering any sen­si­tive details
  Regard­less of whether you are using an online shop: Make sure that all data (in par­tic­ular all pass­words and credit card details) are trans­mitted in encrypted form. You can read up on how to recog­nise a secure con­nec­tion here.
• Use secure passwords
  Next to account details, pass­words for online shops are a favourite target of so-called «phishers». Using such pass­words, crim­i­nals could order goods at your expense or abuse your credit card details for other pur­poses. You can read up on how to create and use secure pass­words here.
• Be careful with advance payments
  If pos­sible, always order your goods on account and don’t pay in advance. Oth­er­wise there is a risk that you never receive your goods and lose your money.
• Pro­tect your devices
  Make sure your devices are well pro­tected with the help of our «5 steps for your dig­ital secu­rity».

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion can also be found on the online shop­ping guide by the Staatssekre­tariat für Wirtschaft SECO.