How To Protect Yourself From Online Scams
Jul 28, 2010
According to the FBI and the National While Collar Crime Center (together they are the Internet Crime Complaint Center), Internet fraud was a $560 million dollar "business" in 2009. Some studies claim the real number is actually in the billions of dollars, since less than 10% of Internet crimes get reported.
Many of these crimes are due to the increase of use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The problem is not with Facebook or Twitter, rather it is with the users and con artists who take advantage of users.
Some of these thieves may be following you on Facebook or Twitter, waiting for the right moment to con you.
What do you do about it? Below is some advice on how to protect yourself. Of course, the most important thing you can do is to use some caution and common sense; don't ever click on anything you are not 100% sure of in your email, networking account, or instant message.
- Don't use passwords that contain personal information, such as phone numbers, addresses, dates, etc.
- Do use passwords with at least 8 characters, including numbers, capital letters, and symbols.
- Don't use the same password for multiple accounts. Access to your bank account would be easy if it had the same password as your Facebook account.
- Do change your passwords monthly.
- Don't click on links in your email or on a website unless you know exactly where it goes to. If you hold your cursor over the link on a website, the real URL should display at the bottom of your browser. Don't be fooled! It is easy to show a link to one page while taking you to another page.
- Do look out for links with the @ symbol in it. Anything before the @ symbol is ignored, so google@somesite.com is not a Google site.
- Do look out for links with more than one dot ( . ) in it. For instance, google.somesite.com is not a Google site.
- Beware of deliberate misspellings of a website name, such as goggle.com. They are designed to trick you into clicking on them.
- Never send money to a cyber friend in need. Some of the biggest scams are from cyber friends who need a few dollars and want you to wire it to them. They always have a good excuse as to why they need the money. Don't fall for it, even if they want the money for a plane ticket to visit you.
- You reconnect with an old friend you haven't seen or heard from in years. Soon, you get an urgent message from them that they were mugged while on vacation and all their money and credit cards were stolen. Of course, you want to help so you ask what you can do for them. The response is "Could you loan me a few dollars to take care of the hotel bill and a cab ride. I'll refund it in the next day to two." The truth of the matter is, this is probably not your long lost friend. It is more than likely a scam artist who has seen your Facebook or Twitter account and knows all about you and your friend. This really happens!
- You find an Internet offer (maybe in your email or on your Facebook page) for a FREE trial of teeth whitener or a weight loss program. The offer states "Pay only the shipping cost of $4.99." What you are missing is the fine print (that is almost the same color as the page you are on) that obligates you to pay "fiftydollars" or "onehundreddollars" per month forever. They will likely spell out the dollar amounts which makes it harder to see. If you do get caught in this scam, cancel your credit card and then fight the "contract."
- You get a "tweet" about a contest for a free iPhone or other prize. What you don't know is the link for that contest downloads a spam bot allowing the scammers to use your email address to send spam e-mail. Do not click on any Twitter link unless you know the follower personally and have asked them if the link is legit.
- You're working on your computer and you get a pop-up stating that your anti-virus program has detected a virus in your computer. "Click here to run a scan." If you click the link, the company will download a virus on your computer. They will then offer to "update your virus program" and remove the virus for $50 to $75. You pay them and not only lose your money but you also still have a computer that is infected. If you see this pop-up, use the "X" in the upper right corner of the pop-up to close it down. If you see it again, take your computer to your repair shop and tell them what is going on. They will fix it correctly.