Your favourite smartphone or trouser brand is on sale, and you just can’t resist buying it immediately! All of us feel that urge to click on that exciting offer ad, but it might not be the smartest thing to do. Ask the Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection (CCCP) sector in Dubai Economy and they will tell you that you might be putting your consumer rights at risk if you buy online from an unverified website.
The good news is, Dubai Economy has listed e-commerce websites, which assure you that your consumer rights will be protected. When hunting for online deals, your best bet is to visit one of the 44 websites that have enrolled in the Digital Protection program initiated by Dubai Economy. This simply means, the websites have pledged to protect your consumer rights and you can contact Dubai Economy if they don’t.
How do you identify portals listed under the Digital Protection program? Click here for the current list of these portals, or look for the Consumer Protection badge (as shown on the left) on the website.
In case you feel that a portal has violated your consumer rights, you can raise a complaint by contacting Ahlan Dubai on 600 54 5555.
Consumer rights aren’t the only issue you should be concerned about, it’s also important to follow these safety tips to ensure that cybercriminals don’t cheat you:
- Always prefer a site with ‘HTTPS’ over a site with only ‘HTTP’ in its URL. That ‘S’ stands for better security
– - Whenever you get a promotional email that seems to be from a retailer you are familiar with, never click on a link without verifying that the email has come from the domain of the website that you trust. e.g. an email from Souk.com will always have ‘souk.com’ in the ID domain, and not souk.us.com
– - Use your credit card instead of a debit card. Credit cards have a more secure payment mechanism
– - Always check if you have landed on a ‘clone site’ by mistake. A clone sight might almost look like a famous site but its URL will not be the same as the original site. e.g. in case you cannot identify which the original website is, follow this guide to identify an original website