Risky Shopping On The Internet

According to Robertson (2006), everybody knows that shopping online is very fast and easy. There is not only saving time, but also can compare the price with different online store very quickly. “The Internet is like a central shopping mall, where you can find just about everything you might need.” However, online shopping is not as fantastic as we thought. It is unsafe and risky. There are many hacks and geeks using illegal ways to get money. And then, online shopping websites are the good deals to steal money very easily. Also, the sellers are not very honest. They just want to get the big benefits. They give a perfect introduction and nice picture to be shown on the Internet and then they give consumers the bad goods. Is that terrible? However, it is truth.

Nowadays, the technology is not completely perfect. Online shopping looks very good. However, there are still lots of problem during your shopping time on the Internet. Many cases cannot be solved on the Internet, such as credit card stolen; goods broken and the shipping taking a long time. Those problems can show that Internet shopping is not very safe or easy.

First of all, when people buy something on the Internet, their money is not safety. People use credit cards to buy something on the Internet. It is really fast and convenient. However, we lose our money when we type the credit card number. Is it terrible? “Technology has made what I did simple. Crime is getting easier, faster and harder to detect” (Nicholls. 2006, Para. 5). According to Nicholls, the hacks can steal your money very easily when you buy some goods on the Internet. Also, we can read the report from Jennifer, “credit-card companies lose about $1 billion a year to credit-card fraud, while merchants lose about $10 billion annually, according to CardWeb, a credit-card information site” (2008, para.8). Therefore, online shopping is unsafe for our money.

Second, the goods, which you bought, may not be the same as you saw them when you have been bought them. Online shopping seems bland shopping. You cannot see the products until you buy it. It is dangerous that some online store may give you wrong stuff or bad stuff. And then, you cannot return them forever. That is a question. We use online shopping because it is cheap and convenient, but we cannot accept that pay less money and get bad things. That means the online shopping’s goods is good or bad depending on whether the seller is good or bad. Therefore, online shopping is dangerous and risky.

Finally, the shipping is also a problem. For example, a man wants to buy a HP computer. In the store, which is located in his city, the price is $500. The man searches the HP computer on the Internet. The price is $450. And then, the man buys it from Internet. However, the man waits for it for about 15 days. The truth is the price is low and the time takes too long. The online shopping is convenient and cheap. However, the shipping time takes too long. It cannot be called convenient. As a result, the online shopping is not very easy.

In conclusion, online shopping is more popular recently. People use it everyday. And the amount of online shopping stores amount is increasing very quickly. “According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, there were over 205,000 complaints of Internet commerce-related fraud reported in 2004…” (Robertson, 2006, Para. 1) It is a huge amount. However, the online shopping still has same big problem: safety and convenient. These still cannot be solved completely. As this result, the online shopping is risky and complicated.


Reference:

Robertson, C. (2006, Jan. 03). Stay safe while shopping online. Retrieved on May 5, 2008. Majon International. From: http://www.majon.com/articles/shopping_-_General/shopping_online_126.html

Mulrean, J. (2008, March. 12). Protect Yourself. Retrieved on May 5, 2008. MSN Money. From: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Finddealsonline/P36487.asp

Nicholls, T. (2006, May. 10). Chip and pin fraud set to rise, Evening Standard, Retrieved on May 5, 2008. From: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=408939&in_page_id=7