How to Tell a Safe Website From an Unsafe Website

Checking that a website is safe can keep your money and your identify protected.

When people talk about a "safe website," they could be referring to a number of things. Before you can check if a website is safe or unsafe, you need to know what to look for. Safety could mean whether the page is secure or not, whether you're being exposed to viruses or whether there are other risks, including scams or criminal activity going on at this particular website.

Instructions

1. Look for data encryption. A safe website often has a small picture of a lock on the bottom right corner. When a website has encryption enabled, nobody can access the site and steal your identity or credit card data. Check for data encryption safety by looking at the URL of a website. If it starts with "https" instead of "http," the page is secure.

2. Pay attention to what information they ask. A safe website will never ask you to share personal, sensitive information. Unless you're on a government website, no safe website should be asking you for your social security number or your place of employment. You might need to give an address for delivery if you're shopping online, but otherwise, there's no reason for a website to ask for it.

3. Install an antivirus program on your computer. This is the only effective way to protect you from viruses, since they're not obvious when you access a website. If your antivirus is running, it will alert you if the website you're trying to access is unsafe.

4. Use a website safety checker like Safe Web Norton, Web of Trust or Link Scanner. To use these services, you simply visit the website service checker, enter the URL of the website you want to visit and click "Scan." The checker will tell you if the website contains malware or if it's safe to visit (see Resources).

Tips & Warnings

• One easy way to stay safe when visiting a website is to stick to what you know. Shop only at major online retailers, rather than obscure websites, especially if they're hosted abroad.

References

• SSL.com: How Can I Tell if a Web Page is Secure?; 2006
• SurfNetKids.com; How Can You Know You Are Shopping On A Safe Website?; Barbara J. Feldman; 2007

Resources

• Safe Web Norton: Is this Site Safe
• Link Scanner: Scan Websites
• Web of Trust: Surf the Web Safely