Every day technology creates efficiency for millions of people. With all of the benefits that technology provides there are also many pitfalls that come with convenience. Online vendors make it easy for people to purchase goods at reasonable prices when compared to brick and mortar stores. There are many good companies to do business with but there are also a lot of shady vendors. There are some pretty easy ways to spot the malicious vendors.

A site that looks poorly designed can be a sign of a site that was put together with haste just to be taken down shortly after a few people are ripped off. Searching for reviews of the company that people have expressed there opinions similar to what eBay has in the form of feedback may help you decide. Also companies that are serious about business will no doubt have thoroughly thought about security and usually their reputation.

Do not use sites from SPAM or other illegitimate sources. Phishing sites are a sure fire way to have your identity stolen and you do not want that to happen. Make sure the site uses an SSL certificate in order to encrypt your information, this is a must have. Do not use the same password for your various logins at different sites. Use at least 8 characters if not more and make sure to include some random characters which make cracking a password much more difficult. Know that there are sites that you may login to that may not use SSL certificates so your password may be picked up using a traffic sniffer. Also wireless networks are an easy way to lose information. Be weary of people listening on the wire with traffic sniffers. Do not send important information via email and instant messengers since they are almost always sent in clear text. Review you credit at least once a year, you may not even know that you a victim of online or identity theft until it has already happened.

There are a number of resources online to help you from online fraud. A simple Google search can help you find these resources.