How to choose a secure Microsoft payment service

Use the same guidelines for choosing a third-party payment service as you would for choosing an online retailer. To test the legitimacy of a service:

Find out what others say about the service:
Look at the payment service’s website for seals of approval
Before you submit sensitive data to the payment service, ensure that the service website uses encryption. (Encryption is a security measure that helps protect your data as it traverses the Internet.) Signs that a website uses encryption include a web address with https (“s” stands for secure) and a closed padlock beside it. (The lock might also be in the lower right corner of the window.)

Use payment services more safely

Never respond to email messages from third-party payment services asking you to confirm account details, such as passwords or other personally identifiable information. These email messages could potentially be identity theft scams, such as phishing.
Create a strong password for your account. Strong passwords are easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess. They are at least 14 characters long and include upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.
Do not use payment services (or make any financial transactions, for that matter) on public or shared computers or on devices such as laptops or cell phones while you are using public wireless networks. The security is unreliable.
Find out whether the seller is a verified member of the payment service, and for how long. Some services allow you to check a seller’s rating—although these ratings cannot be guaranteed, they can be helpful.