Ah, convenience. The pursuit of which has led us into a golden age of internet commerce. Beyond shopping for items, one can now pay their bills, order pizza, run a business, even buy groceries online! Even then, many are skeptical about the feasibility of this enterprise which led me to post about the topic in general. Do read on.
I have been using the internet to buy various articles, primarily books, for quite a while now. One of the main reasons I prefer online shopping to actually visiting a bookstore, is that I do not have to leave my couch to buy a book. While we're at it, I would also like to add that shopping online often saves you money. Websites like www.flipkart.com have flourished over the past few years because I am joined by many many others as far as an opinion about shopping online is concerned. The internet has grown from the days of "just" a means for social interactions to a being huge global megamall! It's not what you can do, it's what you cannot do online that would save space by being a shorter list. If I keep lauding on about this, sooner or later, our minds are programmed to ask: "All right, stop. So what's the catch?".
The biggest flaw about e-commerce is that it is based on trust. You trust somebody you have never seen before to provide you with a service/an item that you have seen only pictures of, and glue this trust by paying money in advance. Initially, this concept was exploited by advertising fake offers online. And gullible people would pay money for something they would never get. Eventually, a workaround was formulated: there was a need to determine which websites were real, and provided goods in exchange for money, and which websites were just shams. This led to the formation of a "secure" browsing environment, which encompasses websites approved by the people in charge of commerce online. Users can now check if the website is (commercially) secure just by looking at it's address: if it has an "https" prefix, you are good to go!
So, all in all, the same rules apply to all forms of shopping: be vigilant or get ripped off. Any online offer that looks too good to be true, probably is a sham. Even a person with no previous knowledge on these matters would agree that there is no way anybody would sell a new iPhone for Rs. 100!! Therefore, commonsense, vigilance, and responsible feedback to the cyber crimes cell in case you are ripped off are all you will need to ensure that your stay on board the "GlobaMall.net" is safe!!
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