With the holiday season approaching, more consumers will be shopping online. How can you tell that the website you are purchasing from is legitimate? Here are things to look for to determine the legitimacy of a website.

• If you are entering personal information, look for “https:” at the beginning of the web address.
• Look for an address, phone number, and email to determine if the company really exists.
• They should not include the payment options Western Union, Moneygram, and/or bank transfer.
• Excessive use of the words 'legitimate', 'honest', 'legal', 'real'.
• Misspellings of a legitimate business within the website url/address.
• If you receive a link from an email, right click and select properties to reveal the links true destination.
• Go with your gut, if it seems like something isn’t right with the website, it probably isn’t.

It’s best to stick with companies that you are familiar with, but if you find a “must-have” item from an unfamiliar website, just be cautious and use common sense.

Visit our Security Pages for additional safety tips.