Safely navigating the new virtual high street.

It might be hard to remember for most of us now, but online shopping was once a new and bewildering - even frightening - new world. Yes, there were bargains to be had, but the online high street was largely unregulated, scams were common, and in a highly competitive environment, even honest traders could quickly disappear.
This short public information 'filler', made by the Central Office of Information for the Dept of Trade & Industry, offers a few simple tips to help anxious consumers 'shop safely on the net'. Rather disappointingly, it imagines the web - still only a few years old - not as some bewilderingly alien landscape conjured from the outer limits of science fiction, but as an antiseptic, semi-translucent but otherwise pretty much familiar shopping centre, through which slightly dazzled shoppers wander, eagerly browsing window displays.
Recommendations for navigating this consumer wonderland include looking for a real address and phone number, and printing a record of your order - what's notably missing is any advice on what consumers can do if their purchases do go astray.

This version includes ESL signing.