Published: Friday, 14 Nov 2008 | 8:59 PM ET

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By: Carlo Dellaverson
Web Producer

As the holiday shopping season approaches, hoards of Americans will flock to the web to save big during what will undoubtedly be a scaled-back Christmas. But there are rules to shopping safely online – rules you must follow to make sure your plastic is secure. Because the last thing anyone needs is a case of identity theft as a holiday hangover.

1. Shop at home! Using an internet café to check sports stats or celebrity gossip? Knock yourself out. But if you’re going to enter credit card information into a strange computer you might as well hand your wallet to strangers walking down the street. Public computers are a cesspool of viruses, so stay away from punching in your card number on any machine that isn’t yours. The business suite at a five-star hotel is no safer than the computer lab at the public library.

2. Use a secure checkout only. When you get to the shopping cart/checkout page of your favorite online store, take a close look at the web address. While it usually starts with HTTP, it should read HTTPS, which signifies that it’s secure and only you and the vendor can see your purchase information. If you don’t see that ‘S’, move along.

3. Only use one card and don’t save the information. Using a single card is not just a great way to keep track of your budget, it also mitigates the damage if your identity is stolen. Also, don’t save your credit card information when prompted by the vendor – it makes it far too easy for someone else to log into your account and go on a shopping bender, footing you with the bill (and it makes impulse purchases all the more difficult as well!).

4. Password protection! Why make life easier for a computer hacker? When you use the same password for everything from your email, to Facebook, to your J.Crew account, it’s like giving hackers the keys to your car, house and office. The rule of thumb is to have one password for shopping, one for banking and one for everything else. No exceptions, Carmen says, and change them often to keep the bad guys guessing.

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