Tech Support Pits:

From Sharon===
Dear Webby
How safe is it really to buy on-line?
Some people say it's perfectly safe, others have all kinds
of horror stories. What's the real scoop?

Dear Sharon
Usually the people ith the wackiest horror stories don't
even have a computer, but read and believe the National
Enquirer.

As long as you don't buy from a spammer, you are
perfectly safe. A spammer, who already cheats and
deceives you with a trick subject line, will continue
in the same direction and will rip you off.

If you find a site through a major search engine like
Google or a recommendation from a friend, you are
quite safe.

Here are some rules to go by:
If a site does not have a secure shopping cart or secure
order form, watch out ! Never use your credit card when
the padlock at the bottom of the browser is not closed.

If you can't pay by credit card or by PayPal, go
somewhere else, where you can. That rule is a bit
tricky.

If they DO accept credit cards, but ALSO accept
PayPal for the convenience of shoppers who don't
have credit carsd, then they are OK.

If they ONLY accept payment by PayPal, but are not
legit enough to be approved for accepting credit cards,
forget them.

If the "business" uses an AOL address, forget them.
There may be a small percentage of legitimate businesses
among all the crooks that use AOL addresses, but that
percentage is too small to gamble on it.
The same applies to cs, ho'mail and yahoo addresses.
Any crook can get one of those disposable addresses,
and dump it as soon as they have your money.

Legitimate businesses have email addresses based on
their domain.

Please note that this applies to USA, Canada, Australia,
New Zealand and Japan only.

In Europe an the Mid-East trust only air lines, rail lines,
and hotels that belong to respectable chains. Any other
business, especially if they are not approved by VISA
or Mastercard, is usually bad news and it's best if you
don't deal with them on-line.

If you follow these rules, you won't get ripped off and will
be able to enjoy a lot of bargains. Airlines, hotels,
car rental agencies and many chain stores give you a
very noticeable discount, if you order over the web.

Have FUN
Dear Webby