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During the holiday season (especially this year), we tend to make more purchases online, so it’s important to be vigilant about protecting your money and private information. Here are 5 online shopping tips to help you keep your information out of the hands of the bad guys.

1. Shop secure sites only. In the browser bar of the website, look for the lock icon to verify they use encryption and make sure the URL starts with ‘https’ rather than just ‘http’.

2. Too good to be true? Beware of links to deals that are too good to be true on social media. Do some research before clicking.

3. Outsmart email scams. You might receive emails or texts offering amazing bargains or claiming there’s been a problem with a package delivery. Don’t open emails from someone you don’t know or a site you haven’t visited.

4. Pick strong passwords. Use a secure, unique password with a complex set of lower and uppercase numbers, letters, and symbols, or consider a long passphrase that is easy for you to remember but others would find unlikely to guess.

5. Don’t shop on free hotspots. Because public wifi networks are not secure, any information you enter on a public network can be easily hacked.