Laxed security and the looming threat of identity theft have a growing number of consumers worried about transactions made on-line.  However, e-commerce sales appear to be growing according to analysts, so the threat of stolen credit card information doesn’t seem to deter from on-line sales that much.  But to give consumers some peace of mind, ecommercetimes.com offers several important tips to make on-line shopping safer for the everyday consumer.

• First and foremost, always make sure you have a secure connection to the Internet. As tempting as it may be to sign onto an available WiFi connection -- whether it be your neighbor's or while stopping for coffee at the local coffee shop -- don't do it!

• Make sure your computer has the most up-to-date antivirus protection to make sure that hackers aren't stealing your passwords or credit card information through Trojans, etc.

• Check to see if the shopping sites you frequent are protected or hacker safe. Look for guarantees of protected shopping, where retailers are taking the initiative to have their sites scanned daily for network vulnerabilities.

• Avoid clicking on links from e-mails hawking products, and never send any credit card information or checking account numbers via e-mail. Make sure that you are on the actual retailer's Web site itself when you're buying, rather than navigating there through e-mail links that could lead you to a phony phishing page. Never respond to spam e-mails, as this will notify the senders that they have located an active account!

• Understand the dangers of pirated software and file sharing. In addition to downloading viruses that shared files could contain, you could be breaking national copyright laws. You could also be downloading spyware - which gathers personal information about you without your knowledge, giving hackers access to your personal files and programs.