Internet sales have been increasing two or three times more swiftly in Latvia in recent years than is the case in traditional retail stores, the Central Statistical Board has reported. For that reason, the Citadele Bank is calling on people to observe security when shopping on the Internet.
“E-commerce statistics show that people in Latvia are more and more active in terms of shopping on the Internet, and purchase sums are growing,” says Citadele board member Santa Purgaile. “The Citadele Bank has found that the sum spent by clients on the Internet in 2014 was 70% higher than in 2013. The increase in purchases from foreign E-stores rose by 80% in comparison to last year. Purchases from Latvian E-stores rose by 49%.”
The bank’s data show that the number of purchases from foreign E-stores increased by 42%, and purchases from Latvian E-stores increased by 9% in 2014 in comparison to 2013. People spend the most money in purchasing bus, airline and ship tickets, buying lottery tickets, and making various payments. They also buy tickets to various events.
As these trends increase, the sad fact is that there is an also an increase in the desire of certain people to use information technologies for malicious purposes. We call on all Internet users to focus on the security of their data.
“The first thing on the Internet is to make sure that the retailer is respectable and trustworthy,” recommends Purgaile. “Find out whether the Webpage is secure. Make sure that the Internet address starts with https://, as opposed to http://. Also make sure that the browser shows a red key in front of the address. That confirms a coded link, and by clicking on the key, you can see the page’s certificate. We also recommend that you use a separate payment card for Internet purchases, as opposed to, say, your wage card. Also, only enter the data that are necessary for the purchase. The SMS bank is an additional security resource when shopping on the Internet, with SMS messages available about incoming and outgoing transactions in payment and card accounts. That makes it much easier to identify suspicious transactions.”
Remote sales in Latvia have more than tripled over the past ten years, rising from 0.5% to 1.7% and exceeding EUR 100 million, the Central Statistical Board reports.