Online ecommerce is growing rapidly, and with that is the growing opportunity for fraud and scams. As Internet users, it is our responsibility to take some precautions that will make our online transactions safer.

One area we need to take responsibility for is protecting our online payment information. Online payment providers have come and gone, but one of them, Paypal, has been around for a while and has become the target of scammers. While this may be alarming, there are actually some very simple steps you can take to keep your Paypal account safe from scammers.

1. Never Click on Any of the Links Listed in a 'Paypal' Email

No matter how official the email you get from Paypal looks, never click on any of the links in the email. Instead of clicking on the links, open up a browser window, and type in paypal.com to go directly to their site from you browser.

As a rule of thumb, only log into the paypal site if you type in the address into the address bar of the browser yourself.



If you get an email that seems official, but looks suspicious, then forward the email to spoof(at)paypal.com where they will be able to tell you if it was a valid email from them or not. To avoid confusion, Paypal will usually never send you an email telling you to log into their site from a link in their email.

2. How to Tell if the Email is Legitimate

If you get an email from Paypal telling you that your account has closed or some other urgent matter, there are things you can look at that will give you a good idea if the email is legitimate or not.



The way to do this is to select the menu selection in your mail program that allows you to look at the source code for the email. Locate the link (just search the page for the link text that sends you to Paypal of the link and you should find the link).



The link should look something like the following:



< a href='http : //{urladdress}'>{link text you just searched for}< / a>



here is an example of a spoofed link..



http://ipox.xx.com.my/xxxxxx/paypal.com/xxxxx



Notice that the domain name is actually 'ipox.xx.com.my'.

You can see a paypal.com in the line, but that is actually the name of a directory in 'ipox.xx.com.my'. If you click the link in the email, your browser will actually go to 'ipox.xx.com.my', which will be a very official looking Paypal page, but will not have any association with Paypal whatsoever. Users will think that they are at paypal because they see a paypal.com in the URL in their address bar, and they see the Paypal login page, but they couldn't be more wrong!



These poor unsuspecting users will type in their username and password and will get a message such as the site is down for maintenance or some other fake message about why they can't see their account information. At this point it is too late. They have given a phisher (scammer) their real username and password.

3. What Do Some of the Spam Messages Look Like?

These artificial phishing (scamming) messages come in many forms. One form is the typical 'Your account is going to be deleted if you don't log in right away'.

Another message looks something like, 'We have seen unusual activity on your account and it has been suspended'.

Yet another message, and this style seems to be newer, is "Receipt of your payment to SOMECOMPANYNAME".



If you will notice that all of these messages get to the heart of human behavioral responses and put us immediately into an emotional state where we are less likely to use are intellect and just immediately react to the message. If we imprint tip #1 into our brains, which is never click on any of the links in an email that looks like it comes from Paypal, we can help to overcome this reaction whenever these or other messages appear.

4. What to Do If You Entered Your Paypal Account Information into One of These Phishing Sites.

If you got caught up in the emotion and entered your Paypal information before you realized it was a fake scam site, you should immediately go to Paypal.com, log in and change your password. You should also monitor your account for any unauthorized activity. Should you see any activity, immediately fill out the 'unauthorized activity form' found in the 'Protection Policies' section of the help center on the website.



If you are really feeling vulnerable, call the support desk and immediately report the incident to a support specialist.





We can make our online Paypal transactions safer by using the tips listed. While there are certainly many exceptions, many of these online fraud situations occur from mistakes on the part of the user, and not the payment processing company, or merchant. Online safety 101 should be a mandatory class for anyone entering the Internet world today, however using a good dose of common sense will take you quite far.






Do you want more information? See these articles on online commerce at http://www.yourecommerceinfo.com/ecommerce-articles
For a course on how to make your website ecommerce enabled, go to http://www.psiphonconsulting.com/onlineform.html
.

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Keywords: Paypal, ecommerce, Security, Online Security,

Every day, a growing number of people venture into the world of online commerce, or ecommerce, in order to sell their goods and services online. When merchants first venture into the online realm, they can get in over their heads by using solutions that are too costly, too complex, or just have way too many features than what the merchants truly need.

The good news is that there are solutions that allow the first time online ecommerce merchant the opportunity to sell their products and services with much less committment and cost on the part of the merchant. Solutions such as Paypal offer the first time ecommerce merchant the opportunity to go into the online realm and get their feet wet without drowning. One must follow the standard safety precautions associated with solutions such as Paypal and they can be on their way to earning an online income.

The next section will go over what you the merchant, will need to consider if you think a payment processing system like Paypal will be work for you or not.

1. Low monthly business volume on your ecommerce website

If you don't have a lot of sales on your ecommerce site, and especially if they are low ticket items, then you may want to consider using a pay-as-you go type of merchant account system such as Paypal. Usually these types of payment processing solutions have a higher percentage rate that they charge the merchant. Sometimes it can be as high as 15% of the price of the item being sold by the online merchant.



Typical merchant accounts usually have a monthly charge associated with the account, whether you sell anything online or not. They also have a lower percentage rate they charge the merchant, so for higher volumes, the merchant will end up saving money with this solution.



When deciding what type of merchant account you should get, you will want to determine the costs associated with merchant processing based on estimated monthly sales volumes. For instance, if you expect to sell 15 items that cost $25 each on average, then determine how much a third party processor like Paypal would charge you for that, and then how much a standard merchant account processor would charge you for the month based upon the same volume. You will find that in going through this excercise, you will discover a break-even point at which you will pay less using a standard merchant account as opposed to the third party processor such as Paypal.

2. You are new to the whole ecommerce concept

If you are new to selling your product or service online (ecommerce), then it may make sense to use a 3rd party processor, such as Paypal to handle your online payments. This way, you aren't forced into any long term contracts, and can discontinue using it if your business isn't working. In most cases you can do this without having to continue to pay additional fees, such as a monthly service charge, to the this type of merchant account processor. With Paypal, it is easy to start up the online processing again without any additional costs, if you choose to give your online business another try.

3. You sell your items on Ebay

Ebay is one of the largest selling platforms on the Internet today. Ebay became so successful, they even purchased Paypal. Ebay does accept payments through other means besides Paypal, but they set it up so that it is easier to perform your transactions through Paypal than other methods.



If you are doing a huge number of transactions through Ebay, it may make more sense to use your own merchant processing account as you will save a lot of money. However the average Ebay seller usually doesn't have the volume to justify using their own online merchant account unless they are already using it for another online business.

Different needs for the ecommerce merchant require different solutions. By no means is there a "one size fits all" type of solution. Merchant processing solutions that work well for one online merchant, may spell disaster for another. The best thing an online merchant can do is to determine their expected sales volume, and their needs, and then find a solution that best serves them. For merchants who are new to ecommerce, and don't expect to generate a lot of volume, Paypal can be a good solution to get them started.

Learn what kinds of tools you need to become a successful online merchant at this ecommerce resource site. Read these ecommerce articles and take this free ecommerce course to learn what you need to know.

Paypal Solutions.

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Keywords: ecommerce, paypal

E-commerce is a growing process that more and more businesses are realizing is necessary to have as part of their business model. Unfortunately it can be a complicated solution that requires knowledge of many back-end functional components that most entrepreneurs aren't familiar with.

This article will discuss the specific components that are required to create an ecommerce web site. It will discuss what the components are, and what they do.

1. Sign up with a quality web hosting provider

Choose a web hosting provider that gives you at least one SQL database, and can do server side scripting, such as SHTML, PHP, and/or CGI scripting. You want a service that will give you at least 300Mb of space, and will give you at least 5 email accounts if possible.



If you can afford it, you should request your own IP address, so you don't have to share your IP address with lots of other web site owners, some of who could be spammers. It only costs a few dollars extra to obtain your own IP address in most cases anyway.

2. Use a good shopping cart

The shopping cart is used to keep track of your visitors desired purchases. In order to serve a multiple number of visitors, your shopping cart needs to do the following:



1) Allow multiple simultaneous users.

2) Keep a running total of the costs.

3) Finalize the order.



Sometimes a shopping cart is located on the same server as your web site, and sometimes it is located on a different server altogether. There are usually many reasons for doing both.

3. Create a good database

The database is usually kept on the same server as your ecommerce site. This will usually mean that you will need to get a hosting plan that gives you a database. SQL is a typical database that comes with many hosting accounts.



The database is usually used to:



1) Keep customer data

2) Create customer personalization

3) Keep product data

4) Hold shopping cart contents

5) Integrate with other systems

4. Accept credit cards

You will want the ability to accept credit cards. Sure, you can run an ecommerce business by using fax, and/or requiring people to send in your checks, but you will be leaving a lot of money on the table if you don't accept credit cards in one form or another.

5. Use a secure socket layer

A secure socket layer allows encrypts the data between the customer's computer and your web server. It keeps prying eyes from sneaking a peek at sensitive data, such as credit card info. You can run a business without it, and you may get some sales, but the vast majority of people will not purchase from your web site if they don't see the secure connection indicator on their web browser. Different browsers indicate the secure connection in different ways.

6. Use a payment gateway

A payment gateway collects the credit card info and sales info (price, customer info, etc.) and does some sort of basic fraud check, to make sure the credit card isn't stolen, etc.

It charges the customer's credit card and deposits the money into your bank account.

7. Acquire a merchant account

A merchant account allows your business to charge sales to credit cards. It is basically a type of agreement between your business and a bank.

8. Get a separate business bank account

You will need a bank account that will accept the deposits for the credit card charges. As with most everything else, business bank accounts vary in features and costs based upon the servicing bank.

Creating a Web site to sell requires complex technology, but it can be relatively straightforward. There are services that can easily provide the required functionality, and in most cases, the greatest challenge is deciding what kinds of services you need, and then being able to connect the pieces together.

Find out exactly what you need to quickly get your web
ready to sell products and services online.
Take our free online course called
"Sites That Sell"

For the FREE Course send an email to:
mailto:psiphon@aweber.com

http://psiphonconsulting.com.
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Keywords: ecommerce, shopping cart, payment processing, professional online commerce