Cappuccino Chat - Episode9 - Holiday Shopping Safeguards

welcome back to another episode of cappuccino chat this time it's just me but I wanted to go over a couple things while we're doing our holiday shopping this season first off make sure any website you're visiting is HTTPS that means it needs to start with HTTPS not the standard this means that all the traffic will be encrypted between your computer and their web server help to give you a little bit extra protection also don't use your debit card use your credit card instead credit cards have a little more protection if something were to happen and your credit was somehow stolen or they got a hold those credit cards from the website you were visiting you also want to make sure that you don't click on any links inside emails that you may get during the holiday season all of us will probably be shopping at some point on Amazon so if I were to send you a fake email saying I was Amazon and there was a problem with your order you would more than likely click on that and follow along with the instructions now these guys are getting very good about creating websites that look just like the real Amazon and then they get you to put their your username and password in there and then it'll give you some kind of weird error message sorry try back later meanwhile they've got your account and they can get in to your PayPal and he stored credit cards etc etc so if you do get an email from someone because we're all gonna go shopping whether it be FedEx UPS the Postal Service Amazon etc go back to that website directly so you go open up a web browser log in to their website go to fedex.com input the tracking number and let it the tracking number come to you that way another thing is with your credit so again we're all gonna be using our credit cards all over the place to do online shopping I highly recommend that you freeze your credit with the three different credit bureaus now what this allows you to do is basically if someone were to steal your personal information they couldn't open up any accounts in your name so you're not gonna get a weird credit card from somewhere that you know nothing about they would just be blocked from opening because no one can run your now if you're going out to buy a new car or apply for some line of credit you're gonna need to remember to unfreeze your account typically freezing your account there's a one-time charge for doing this the three different credit bureaus or each gonna charge you to do that but it's not like locking your credit so don't lock your credit because there is a monthly fee that goes along with locking from the three different credit bureaus your Equifax TransUnion and Experian and stuff like that so freeze it one-time charge you go in you can unfreeze it with a pin so if you are gonna go apply for a loan for something maybe you want to go get a new car for the holiday season you can ask the car dealer which credit bureau they're gonna run for you you can specifically go in there and unfreeze that one using your PIN and then go right back in and refreeze it for the holiday season so again remember be safe out there don't just randomly click on things and you know be mindful of what you're doing because the cyber criminals are out to get your information this holiday season no coffee this time it is the holiday season so have a good cup of eggnog on me and I'll see you next time on cappuccino chat you