online transactions

byZuks

50 followers

Updated 9 years ago

Tips when making online transactions

The smartphone penetration and mobile internet has led to ever increasing connected digital lives, this opens doors to a digital revolution, offering endless possibilities for communication, development and business. Online entrepreneurship / E-commerce is on the rise in Africa & is expected to double in the next 5 years as new technology overcomes weak or non-existent landline infrastructure therefore transforming our lives.

Online transacting (exchanging money online) is easier than A,B,C, all you need is internet connection and your banking information. Most of the time when we purchase online there is no advice given therefore one must be very careful, as it can be very easy to lose your hard earned money.

• 1.Make payments through Trusted websites. Always do a thorough research about the SELLER before committing to a purchase. Make sure you are paying through a secured payment gateway such as Paypal, Payfast or any other.
• 2.Use secured connection – when making online payments use : https:// instead of http://, where https:// is a secured encrypted connection. In https:// ‘S’ secured using SSH. For example check out https://www.paypal.co.za
• 3.Beware of Phishing Sites & Emails – always make sure you check the certificate of a site when making transactions / do not open sites by clicking links sent to you via email. If it’s too good to be true then it is.

RED: represents the certificate is out of date, invalid, or has an error.
YELLOW: represents that the authenticity of the certification authority that issued it cannot be verified. This might show a problem with the certification authority’s website.
WHITE: represents that the certificate has normal validation. This means that communication between your browser and the website is encrypted.
GREEN: represents that the certificate uses extended validation. This means that communication between your browser and website is encrypted and that the certification authority has confirmed the website is owned or operated by a business that is legally organised under the jurisdiction shown in the certificate and on the Security Status bar.

• 4.Insist on using your personal computer / Device for online payments. Most internet devices saves Usernames and Passwords & have cookies saved to their browsers, which is a big loophole when using confidential information. For peace of mind always use your OWN DEVICE to transact.
• 5. Banks High security OTP codes – highly recommended is the use of unique TEMP OTP’s that your bank sends to your mobile to Authenticate the transaction.