How to Protect Yourself From Online Scams
Most young people are becoming victims of online scams today. Still, the older generation loses more to online fraud.
About 105,000 old folks aged 60 years and above reported a collective loss of $966 million. This translates to an average of more than $9100 per person.
Individuals aged 50 to 59 years reported the highest losses of about $9864 per victim. The most common scams include phishing, fine print, and shopping scams.
You’ll need to learn various online protection techniques to keep you safe from online fraud. This article provides you with tips on protecting yourself from online scams.
Understand Who You’re Dealing With
Sometimes, you can meet a person online and become doubtful about the legitimacy of the business transaction. It’s advisable to take a step back and research more information about the individuals before any transaction.
You can image search to find their photos. It would also help to look online for other people who have transacted with your prospective partner before.
Treat any suspicious feedback you get as a red flag. Otherwise, you may end up losing your money to online fraud.
Update Your Computer and Mobile Devices
It’s recommendable to have the latest security software, web browser, and operating systems at all times. This measure will guarantee your online protection against viruses, malware, and other online scams.
You can manually update your electronic devices. Alternatively, you can schedule your computer and phones for automatic system updates to get the latest fixes as soon as they become available.
Be Cautions About Phishing Scams
These scams trick victims into disclosing login data to private accounts using fraudulent emails and websites. Avoid opening suspicious emails in your inboxes.
Also, don’t click links, attachments, and screen pop-ups from sources you aren’t familiar with. You should forward the phishing emails to the Federal Trade Commission and the company impersonated in the mail.
Visit https://www.linux-wlan.org/phishing to learn more about phishing and how you can prevent a phishing attack.
Safeguard Your Personal Information
Often, hackers will use your social medial profiles to figure out your passwords. These frauds try to answer your security questions on the password reset pages.
Ensure you lock down the privacy settings for your online protection. Besides, avoid accepting online requests from people you don’t know.
You can also modify your passwords to stronger ones. You should use a minimum of eight characters when setting new passwords. This measure helps mix special characters, numbers, and upper and lowercase letters.
Safe Shopping
You’ll need to ensure your shopping websites use secure technology. Always confirm the web address of your shopping platform starts with HTTPS.
HTTPS is an internet communication protocol. It helps to protect the confidentiality and integrity of information between your computer and the website.
Also, read the website’s data privacy policies. You’ll better understand how the site will protect your personal data after collection.
Seek other alternatives if you can’t understand the privacy policies on a given site.
Online Scams Effects
There are other effects of online scams besides losing your money. When personal information gets exposed online, you risk losing your reputation.
Online identity theft can also subject you to long-term debts. Virus and malware attacks will also corrupt essential files on your computer. With these tips, you can always improve your online protection.
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