How to know if a website is secured.

The internet is an amazing place that literally has everything that you might want. From reading newspapers to purchasing software and commercial products to banking, it’s all available online. Unfortunately, there are people lurking on many websites waiting for consumers to leave valuable information such as bank account information, credit card or social security numbers. Identity theft is on the rise around the world as hackers and cyber criminals continue to try and stay one step ahead of online security measures.

How to Know if a Website is Safe?
It’s crucial for every online consumer to be able to be able to identify if a website is safe before typing in their personal information. Before entering any personal data on a website, you should check and see if the site has an SSL certificate. The easiest way to check is to look at the URL and see if the domain is https, as opposed to http, which means the website server has a level of protection that ensures your data can safely be processed. Facebook.com is one good example for a site that uses SSL.

When you go to any website, you can check the security information by clicking on the security icon just to the left of the URL. Every browser will be a little different, but they can all let you know whether a site is safe or not, and who is providing the safety verification.

Look for Trusted Payment Methods
Another factor to take into account is which payment methods are accepted on the site. Many online gamblers were thrilled recently when major online casinos such as Casino.com started accepting PayPal as a viable payment method. As one of the largest and most well-known online payment processors, customers know that their money and personal information will remain secure.

Check the Domain
Cyber criminals are smart and they often anticipate that people can be very lazy when shopping online. Most major websites like Amazon.com have very distinct color schemes and layouts, and these hackers can design a website that will look identical to the real thing. A person may click on an ad, think they are at Amazon and try and make a purchase, but really, they just gave their info to an identity thief. You can easily avoid this by checking the domain and making sure it’s correct, and not spelled incorrectly, like Amaz0n.co. If you aren’t sure if a site is legit, Google the URL and you will be directed to the legitimate site.

Identity theft can really make your life difficult, so make sure to take these simple precautions to help ensure that your personal information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

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