Identity theft
is a particular type of online scam where a scammer obtains confidential
financial details of his victims through illegal means and then uses that
information for his own personal benefit. Credit card or debit card theft is
one of the most common examples of online scams related to identity theft.
Here the scammer
makes a series of purchases with your card and leaves you to cough up money for
a bill that could run to thousands of dollars. The most notorious thing about
online scams of this type is that people do not release about the theft for a
long time. This enables scammers to take full advantage of them. If you do not
want to be a victim to online scams, follow some of the
tips mentioned here.
- Protect Your Bank Account
You can prevent online
scams by regularly checking your bank account. Look for your statement to see
if there are any out of pocket expenses. Sometimes people make the mistakes of
checking the statement once every few months and it becomes very difficult to
spot anomalies, especially if the scammer has been clever to refrain by making
any single huge expenditures. If you find any discrepancy, immediately inform
your credit card company.
It is a good
idea to sign up with one of the credit bureaus to get fraud alerts in case the
scammer happens to use your card. One effective way of preventing online scam
is to sign up with Master Card SecureCode or American Express SafeKey or Verified
by Visa. This feature will add an extra layer of security to your card which
will significantly reduce the possibility of online scams. You should do this
even if you don’t plan on using them to make payments on the web.
- Protect Your Computer
One of the biggest reasons for online scams like identity theft is because of the
carelessness of credit card users. For the sake of easy access, they store all
the confidential login and password details to their online financial accounts
and store it in a folder and leave it on the desktop. This way, they easily
make online payments without having to rummage through several different
folders. This is very dangerous and makes you highly prone to online scams if
hackers wind up getting access to these accounts. Even if you unknowingly
download a malware, it might scan your system for banking details and then
discreetly send it to the scammer. You wouldn’t even be aware of the incident
unless you see the monthly bill.
Use a good
quality anti virus software to regularly run scans on your system. This will
help weed out any spyware that may be present in your system and help prevent
you from falling victim to online scams.
- Protect your Smartphone
With so many
services being offered on smartphones, they are also vulnerable to identity
fraud attacks by scammers. Do not use public WiFi hotspots to make payments.
These are unprotected and your online movements could be easily monitored by
scammers which will leave you vulnerable to fraud. Make it a point to install an anti virus
software in your cell phone as well.
For more
information on tech related subjects, visit the site Big Scammers and find all
the latest news.
