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One useful function of the Internet is the option to buy direct from overseas manufacturers, distributors and stores, and so bypass the GST and the profit margin of local merchants. The savings are sometimes small, sometimes much larger.
My own experience over the past eight years has mostly been good, but has been limited to books (when the world is your market place you can find lots of interesting, hard-to-locate books) and chess software. The only time I have ever lost money was dealing with an American chess supplier with whom I had previously had good results. Perhaps their prices were too good because when I placed my final order they sold their business but neglected to fill the order before they scarpered with my $50. It didn't hurt too much when weighed against previous savings, but was a valid warning about what can happen.
As far as I know there are only two ways a web site can obtain money from you. One is to ask for your credit card or financial details, the other is to charge the time you're on their site against your telephone account. I haven't heard of this happening for a few years and perhaps it's been discontinued, but I remember being stung when I was new to the Internet. I think The Louvre was one site I unwittingly paid to visit. The solution? I phoned Telstra and asked them to put a bar on my 1900 numbers. That means that although I can't phone any of those numbers, nobody can bill me without my knowing about it, either. Think about it.
It isn't actually supplying your credit card number on the Net that's a risk—after all, every time you use your card to pay a bill the retailer uses the Net to transmit the details to your credit source. The problem comes when you give your number to the wrong supplier and leave yourself open to fraud of one kind or another. In other words, make certain who you're dealing with. Respected companies are a fair option, no matter where they're located.
One defensive ploy is to take out a separate card with a small credit limit. My second Mastercard has a limit of $500 so even if I run into the cyberspace equivalent of Genghis Khan I can't lose for more than that.
Additionally your supplier probably has a policy of refunding money that you've lost to credit card fraud. You'll need to check with your own supplier to find out about their policy. Mastercard would have refunded my lost $50 if I had claimed it within four weeks of the transaction. Unfortunately I didn't find out soon enough.
Another option is to use a company called PayPal. The advantage from our point of view is that you reveal your credit card details to them, and they organise the transaction with the ultimate retailer. In other words, you need give out your details only once. The disadvantage is that not every retailer has an account with PayPal. I've used them a few times and have incurred no extra cost.
So, if you've been worried about the safety of shopping on the Net, relax and enjoy the advantages. But remember the catchword—caveat emptor: let the buyer beware. Be watchful, be cautious, and NEVER give your bank details to ANYBODY who requests them by e-mail. It's called "phishing" and I'll write about that another time.
If you're a book lover the Internet gives you the opportunity to find that book you've been seeking unsuccessfully for years. There are many book retailers on line and I've been very happy with an agency called Abebooks. They have catalogued books from bookshops all over the world and in ordering through Abebooks you are really dealing with the individual booksellers. So, if you were looking for a complete set of titles by a particular author, and ordered half a dozen books at the same time, you may receive them from three or four different countries. The catch with buying books this way is that although secondhand books are cheap, postage adds significantly to their price.
Happy Web shopping. There's something out there for everybody.