When it comes to
internet fraud, there are thousands of scams that you need to be aware off.
Most of these scams have been designed to pinch money from you, either with or
without your knowledge. With improvements being made in technology, the scams
are also becoming more and more sophisticated, making it harder for users to
spot them. Here are some tips to help you protect yourself from all kinds of
internet fraud.
- Secure Internet Access
The first step
to preventing internet fraud from happening to you is by securing your internet
connection. You need to lay down some ground rules before you start surfing on
the web. For starters, you should never use public Wi-Fi spots while making any
sort of financial transactions. Whether you are using your laptop or
smartphone, refrain from using the password free public hot spots to make
online payments. Hackers can monitor your online surfing habits in real time
through these unsecured networks. When you are using your internet connection
at home, use upper case and lower case keys in your password to make them
strong. This again will make it difficult for hackers to break into your
network.
- Anti Virus Software
When you use the
internet on a regular basis, the computer automatically becomes vulnerable to
internet fraud. This could happen in ‘n’ number of ways. You could be surfing
unprotected sites that have embedded virus programs in them and by simply
accessing the website, the spyware could get installed on your system. Another
common type of internet fraud is through e-mail scams where you open unchecked
mails and end up corrupting your system with a virus application. One of the
most common ways of infecting your system these days is through flash drives.
These memory devices are plugged in different systems and hence becomes carriers
of all kinds of spyware and malware. By installing a good quality anti-virus
software, you can prevent these threats from taking over your system and also
protect yourself from internet fraud.
- Good Surfing Practices
Always be a
little cautious about what you download. With so many infected siles
circulating the web, you always need to exercise a little bit of caution. When
you are making online payment, make sure to pick only those sites that are not
only secure but also fully compliant with latest safeguards of the online
payment industry. To facilitate ease of access, these sites usually store your
credit card or debit card details so that you don’t have to enter the
information all over again each time you have to make a payment. While millions
of people use this feature, it is a little risky especially of the account gets
hacked. It would be better to enter them every time you make a purchase or use
a dedicated financial account to make your online purchases. This way, even in
the event of an online fraud, the damages would be minimum and your savings
would remain untouched.
Another mistake
a lot of people make which makes them vulnerable to internet fraud is to store
all their banking related online information on their system. If your system
gets hacked, the scammers will first look for financial information and no
matter how well you have them hidden, the can still be recovered.
To make matters
worse, some people neatly compile the usernames and passwords of all their
online financial accounts and store it in a neat folder on the desktop. The
hacker here does not even have to work hard to get that information since it’s
just there waiting for him on a platter. Avoid storing digital copies on your
system and also make payments on platforms where you are required to share your
CVV password while making payments. This just adds another layer of security to
the payment process.
