Buying products, services, and information online is a growing trend.

It almost seems as if everybody has something to sell online these days. That can be both good and bad in a since.

It’s good that information and resources are now more easily acquired than any other time in history. The gap between the information you need and you is often just a Google search and click away.

The bad part is everybody is not honest. You have dishonest folk out there that dilute the online community with tactics, scams, and tricks to get as much money from you as possible as quick as possible.

However, there’s another, often overlooked, factor that you should be aware of before you purchase products online.

This simple tip can save you from having your bank account information stole, sold, or processed without your permission.

Look for the ‘S’

All web address begin with “http://” or “https://”. When submitting any kind of sensitive information over the internet you want to make sure the site is secured.

That ‘s’ signifies that the website is secured and your submitted information will be protected.

This is called a Secured Sockets Layer (SSL). And it provides the single most important reason you care about…

Browser checks the certificate to make sure that the site you are connecting to is the real site and not someone intercepting.

I know this may seem basic, but you would be surprised at the amount of transactions that take place over an unsecured website.

If you own your own website make sure you take this into account as well. The 3 main options you have are as follows:

1. Purchase a SSL certificate for your site to enable secure checkouts via your website.
2. Use a third party merchant like Paypal, Google Checkout, etc.
3. Pay for a shopping cart service.

Each choice has its pros and cons but the important thing is to make sure you’re using ONE of them if you plan on making any money on the internet.

Consumers, from now on, NEVER make another purchase  from a website that is not safe and secured.

One simple check can save you from a world of hurt and pain.