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“In the past five years, 1 in 4 Americans was a victim of identity theft making it America's fastest growing crime. Identity theft statistics indicate that this crime costs the government, businesses, and citizens of America billions of dollars each year.” – whitcanyon.com

“Arizona had the dubious distinction of being the very worst place in America for identity theft. The rampant fraud affected almost 300,000 residents last year. The financial damages totaled $147 million. Why did this happen? An investigation has been opened to answer that question. Called 'Identity Theft 911', this study wants to know why 25% of Arizona residents have fallen prey to identity theft in the past six years. Some possible reasons include lack of government action, the increasing market for methamphetamines, and illegal or fraudulent employment.” – (Weiss, 2008)

According to the Javelin Strategy and Research’s new report, identity fraud rates increased for the first time in the five years (2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report: Identity Fraud on the Rise but Consumer Costs Plummet as Protectionist increase, 2009)

These are few of the many reasons why many people still prefer shopping traditionally though the virtual world offer a much convenient way. Though the Internet has opened and skyrocketed the opportunities for business entrepreneur, it is not a guarantee that you will be successful in whatever you may want to venture online.

The information above is the concerns of online shoppers when making online purchases. According to an article citing TNS Research (2006), 87% of online shoppers are concerned about credit card fraud; 85% of online shoppers are concerned about identity theft; 83% of online shoppers are concerned about sharing personal information; and 77% of online shoppers are concerned about spyware.

Based on these facts, we can conclude that building trust in e commerce is essential. Trust is the key element of commerce in both traditional and innovative model. The latter needs much work and effort than its traditional counterpart because it solely relies on trust being created and maintained with the help of the digital devices and services.


These are the following information and ways I have research to convey trust on the Internet:

• Since many people are concern of entering information and confidential data across the Internet, digital certificate is the effect for ensuring e commerce security. Having a digital certificate in your web site makes online shoppers feel secure because it is a sign that you, the certificate owner is legitimate and is able to protect the sensitive data of your customers. You can only have a digital certificate after the certificate authority have thoroughly checked your company. Customers who see your post logo will trust you because they will know that your web site undergoes a thorough test and inspection process and that their personal data submitted will be encrypted.

• Many people are hesitant in doing shopping online because they do not know what the online merchant will do with their personal data because they may think that their information will be sold to email spammers and telemarketers. With this, e commerce companies can show that they take privacy seriously by displaying a seal that tells customers that the company practices a good privacy policy.

• An e commerce company must not only take care of security issues and assure other privacy issues but also prove that they deliver promises. A company must make sure that they are reliable by making sure that they provide an excellent service level.

• You should also provide a way to contact your business to know their concerns also.

• Putting testimonials from your customers is an effective way to gain your visitor’s trust. In this way, they will know what kind of product and service you have.

• You also need to let your visitors know how will you use their personal information and how are you going store it.

• A very popular and for good reasoning is the money back guarantee. It is a way to show that you do not have anything to hide and you are confident in your product or service.

• Providing a sample or trial of your product or service is also a wonderful way to gain visitor’s trust.

• It is also advantage if you have endorsements from another well known and respected organization(s) or person(s) that will help you prove your claims.

• According to John S. Rhodes article, the three primary factors about trust from a survey are: good content, simple design, and few grammatical errors.

• Well-written content is crucial in gaining trust. It is said that a trusted web site is driven by content other than design driven. Also the decorative graphics, animations and other “ornamentals” don’t seem to facilitate the development of trust.

• Grammatical errors have a tendency to cause a user to drive back and discourage them to bookmark. Well organizing and updating your web site frequently can improve trust to users especially if you provide them with the well-run materials. Many users easily trust those web sites that are easy to access and easy to search. Freshness of your content is also a great factor because fresh material is easier to trust than old materials.

• According to survey, people are inclined to trust web sites that are more usable.

• It is important that your web site is well designed and provide a user friendly environment that makes sure your visitors comfortable in the first time they visit your site. First impression is very important. You cannot convince your visitors face to face so it is important to have a good interface.

• In should be taken seriously that small things can quickly turn users off making their trust drop such as spelling errors.

• Even a minor grammatical error can deter a sale because a decrease in usability leads to decrease in trust. The risk that people may go elsewhere is high when there is a usability error.

• Make sure that your web content is audience appropriate and user driven. It is important to create the content first before the design. To ensure that there is no error, repeatedly test the content and design with users.

• Having a simple web site is important. It is advisable to make sure that your web site is as simple as possible using minimum colors and graphics. Organize the content effectively and be consistent from page to page.

• Aside from grammatical errors, beware of factual errors. Do not say something that is not true and don’t fabricate information.

• Give credit where credit is due. Provide links to sources and references.

• Updating frequently is important. Informing users of the last update is usually done at the bottom of the page in the footer area.

• Minimize the use of graphics. When using graphics be sure that they are appealing. Graphics should generally provide extremely useful information or they should present an idea not easily expressed with words.

• Be sure that there are no dead links on your site.

• Be sure that user email (especially user feedback) is responded to as fast as possible. An increase in response time is inversely proportional to trust. Also, be sure to utilize the power of your .sig file.



If you are serious about selling on the world wide web and being successful, your number one priority must be gaining your visitor’s trust. Without trust you won’t sale much and that’s really being optimistic. How do visitors know that they can trust a web site enough to buy? In this article I’ll show how to gain the trust of your visitors.

The first impression can be everything. Studies have shown that visitors can determine almost immediately whether they can trust you or not. Making it essential that you have good, clean and professional looking web design. The web design should be easy to the eye and easy to navigate. It should also load fast and require nothing to download in order for it to be viewed, such as flash and Java.

Provide your visitors a way for them to contact your business. Many visitors will look for this information, some don’t even realize they do. If you don’t provide it you are sure to lose sales. They need to know this information, just in case they need help or want to return the product or want to make a comment. You need to provide a mailing address, phone number and email address/contact form.

Secure Sockets Layer certificate is also important part of gaining your visitor’s trust. Secure Socket Layer is a protocol that sends encrypted data over the Internet. Secure Sockets Layer certificate shows that all information being transmitted on your web site will be passed on securely and is protected. Some people will not even think about buying from a web site that don’t at least offer this as an option.

Testimonials can be a wonderful way to gain your visitor’s trust in your product or service. Testimonials show that people that have bought from you are pleased with your product or service. Also, never make up testimonials, this can hurt you more then it helps because it’s not too hard for you to be caught in the act. This may lead people to believe that all your testimonials are fake and that you can’t be trusted.

Internet surfers are ever more looking at the privacy statement on web sites because of the fear of personal information getting into the wrong hands. You need to let your visitors know exactly how you will be using their information you collect and how you’ll be storing it. Visitors need to know if their information will be sold or shared with any third party and if you sale or shared the information with any third party, what information will you give out?

Also what security measures will you take to protect the information you have collected and how can they change or delete any of their information? It’s also a good idea to get your privacy statement certificate by an organization that’s well known and trusted. Most of these organizations make sure your privacy statement is fair to the internet surfers.

Money back guarantees are becoming very popular and for good reason, they show that you are confident in your product or service and that you have nothing to hide. It removes all risk to your customers and makes them much more likely to buy from you. Further more, remember to honor all refund requests in a timely manner without fighting with them. Just suck it up and give them the refund.

Provide a sample or trial of your product or service. This will allow your potential customers to test out the product or service before making any commitment. Some potential customers may have never got the product or service from you before because of the fear that it wasn’t what they really wanted and needed. Just like offering the money back guarantees, this too will show that you are confident in your product or service and that you have nothing to hide.

Today, according to study getting endorsements from another well known and respected organization(s) or person(s) will help prove your claims. The integrity and expertise of the person or organization endorsing your service or product also plays a role. Someone that’s consider an expert about one of your service’s or product’s subject would be better then someone that don’t know much or anything about it.

Though business owners are giving their best in protecting their customers, it should always be remembered that hackers and other people having bad intentions are also doing their best in using the power of technology in achieving what they want. Therefore, it is also important that every individual must do their part in protecting their identity. The following are just some suggestions to protect your self against identity thieves: every individual must be aware the business they are dealing with; ensure you are shopping at a secure Web site; beware of phishing e-mails that appear to be from trusted businesses; review privacy and security policies of the companies you do business with; do not use personal information for passwords; be proactive in protecting your security by keeping antivirus and firewall software updated; be aware that international security and privacy standards may be different; and check your credit report regularly.

In many cases, identity theft victims haven't done anything wrong, except place their trust in people who abuse or neglect it. Do your part to protect your identity by enrolling in a credit monitoring service. Use online banking to keep real-time tabs on purchases made with your accounts. If you notice anything odd, contact your credit card company immediately. Many of them have measures in place to keep identity theft damage to a minimum.

As the technology is evolving, it should always be remembered that thieves are also coping with this changes just like what is said by Judy Lin, the executive vice president and general manager of VeriSign, "With the increase in both the frequency and sophistication of malicious online activities such as phishing and identity theft, a fresh approach is needed to protect consumers as they conduct business online.”

Sources:
[1] http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/the-worst-identity-theft-scams-of-the-year-435665.html
[2] http://www.whitecanyon.com/identity-theft-statistics.php
[3] http://www.spamlaws.com/credit-fraud-stats.html *
[4] http://www.samport.com/news/press-release-online-fraud-hits-christmas-shopping *
[5] http://www.en8848.com.cn/Article/Ecommerce/Ecommerce/11747.html