With online shopping becoming more and more popular each year, and especially during the holiday season, Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves reminds residents of some basic, but important tips on how to protect purchases and guard against potential scams.

"It's recommended, if possible, to have packages delivered to your place of work or to a location you know someone will be at, rather than having it left on your front porch unattended," according to Sheriff Groves.

"Some thieves will drive neighborhoods or even follow delivery trucks so they can steal the packages after they are dropped off."

In addition to making sure your packages are secure, it's important to make sure your financial information is safe.  To do so, Sheriff Groves recommends the following:

• Monitor your credit card accounts closely. Question and check into any unfamiliar or unauthorized transactions. You can also use a notification feature with many delivery services, such as Amazon, which will send you a text notification any time a purchase is made to your account.
• Be aware of fraudulent websites that may look like a familiar store. The legitimate URL should start with HTTPS and should also have a lock symbol next to the address.
• Use a secure network to conduct transactions, not a public WiFi network
• When creating usernames and passwords, make sure they are unique. Resist the convenience of using the same user ID's and passwords for multiple accounts.
• If given the option, take the extra time to enable the two-step authentication feature, which will send a code to your cell phone to insure you are the same person attempting to make an online purchase.

"Finally, regardless of the time of year, it's important to never give out personal bank account information, social security numbers, confirm addresses or give any other personal information to someone calling you, even if they claim to be with your bank, a government agency or a business you are familiar with.  If you have concerns about your information being breached, you should hang up and call the official number for the institution, not the one provided by whoever called you," concluded Sheriff Groves.

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