The holiday shopping season is in full swing, and while you may be excited to snag that great deal on just the right gift, you also want to make sure you’re being safe while doing it. Mountain America Credit Union has some facts on how you can stay safe
- If you’re buying from a website, rather than an app, look in your web browser’s location bar or URL bar for https:// or a lock symbol. That tells you the website is using proper security to help prevent your payment information from being stolen.
- Beware of too-good-to-be-true deals online. If you find them on websites that you haven’t heard of before and seem to be offering prices that are way below everywhere else you look, that’s a red flag. That could be a site set up to lure you into giving up your personal and payment information. Be wary of following deal links on social media sites, as well.
One way you can stay safe is using your mobile wallet. apps like Google Wallet or Apple Pay that you can use to pay for a purchase instead of tapping or inserting a card. There are a couple advantages to using a mobile wallet over a card. The first is you don’t have to carry a physical card that could get lost or stolen. Your mobile wallet is an app on your phone, so even if that’s taken someone would still need your FaceID or a password to access to your phone.
Secondly, when you pay with a mobile wallet, it doesn’t actually provide your card number and other details. Instead, it creates a unique ID for each transaction. That way if the merchant were to have a data breach, your card information wouldn’t be compromised.
You can learn more about at macu.com.
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