WD Bathrooms helps customers fight online fraud

Online, March 27, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Many customers are wary of buying goods on the Internet which is why successful online retailer, WD Bathrooms is sharing top tips for protecting yourself against fraud.

The Sheffield-based company sells bathrooms and showers online and has built up a strong customer base thanks to its emphasis on secure sales.

New Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) now give consumers the added security of retailers having to achieve certain levels of compliance depending on how they operate. Sadly, there are some unscrupulous traders out there and customers can be rightly concerned about how their personal information is used when purchasing goods through a website or via the telephone.
Mark Wilson, director of WD Bathrooms said that buying online is a safe way to buy if the website provider has implemented the necessary security such as a secure, encrypted form of payment. This ensures that all card details are safely passed to the payment providers without the possibility of anyone obtaining them.

Many online providers use a third party payment provider such as Sage Pay which means that credit cards numbers will not be seen. From November 1st 2009 all payment institutes such as Sage Pay are regulated by the Financial Regulator. WD Bathrooms has been a partner of Sage Pay (formerly Protx) since 2004.

Mark said: "We are able to take our customer's payment details through our website, and although we offer a secure facility, our customers' card details are very important and must be protected to the highest level. Sage Pay offers a high level of security and we also offer extra security such as the 3rd man check. In the end it is the merchant that is responsible for the safety of customer's details so the use of great technology is paramount."
Using a credit card can give you even more protection when making a purchase online but whatever you are buying, do ensure you check out the business first. People new to buying online may have concerns about whether or not a website is linked to a genuine company or not.

Mark explained that checking a company out can be quite straightforward. He said: "A few simple steps may help in testing a website's credibility. Try typing the company's name into Google, Yahoo or Bing and see what the results are. If there are many results showing the website on lots of other websites, this is a positive factor. If you do a search for the website and see only one result which is the website itself then investigate this further before making a purchase as one of the many ways in which search engines rank a site is by how many votes it gets from another site. These votes are in the way of a link and show the popularity of a site, giving an indication of how trustworthy it is."

Just because a business is on the internet it doesn't mean you can't have a look at it. "Now that Google Street Map covers 95% of the United Kingdom you can use it to take a look at the premises." Mark said. "From this you may be able to get another indication of the legitimacy of the business."