Tips On How To Protect Yourself From Internet Scam

By Author: Cody Watson
Total Articles: 89
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Internet scam is the illegal act of stealing Internet users’ personal financial information by hacking their user names, passwords, PIN numbers etc. For this purpose, Internet scammers send Phishing emails with a catchy subject and beautiful images to grab the attention of the reader. The moment the wrong link is clicked on, the system gets attacked by malware and the vital information gets hacked. There have been numerous reports of financial loss due to Internet scams in the past. To give you one such example, ICCC's fifth annual report in 2005 says America suffered a huge loss of about $183.12 million due Internet scam which was nearly three times than the loss suffered in the previous year. However, if you are looking for a safe surfing on the web, then, be sure to check out the tips given below to protect yourself from Internet scam.

Tips to protect yourself from Internet scam

Don’t get castled by the fake websites. The web masters design their websites so attractively that any reader would be tempted to click on the links. Be extra careful while landing up on a website. Click on the link only if you feel ...
... it has the information that you are looking for and not for the attractive look of it.

Be careful while subscribing yourself to any of the promotional websites. There are lots of websites that send free newsletters and information about various products and services. However, make sure that you don’t give out too much of your personal information while filling out the online forms. And, it is always good to stop giving out personal details over the phone to unknown telemarketers. Note that all the information you give out may get circulated among various companies and there is a possibility that it may sometimes reach the wrong people.

Be wary of unsolicited emails. Fortunately, these days, the email services themselves have various tools to filter out the unsolicited junk mails and put them in the ‘spam’ box. Even if some of them slip through the filtering process and land up on your Inbox, just see to that the content is sensible. Never fall prey to the mails that ask for your personal information.

Create unique passwords for all your online accounts. Make sure you create strengthened passwords. Shorter passwords are easy to hack as they require less coding for the hackers. Maintain different passwords for various online accounts like email, social networking sites, Internet banking etc. and make sure you make a note of the new passwords as and when you change them. Ultimately, personal privacy is what you need for all your online accounts that you enjoy surfing with any of the popular Internet connections such as Xfinity Internet.

Another important thing you need to bear in mind is, never give out your social security number (SSN) to any stranger or false-claimers. The only time you may need to give out your SSN is when you apply for a credit card. Another thing to bear in mind is, be careful of the pop-up windows that you get on clicking certain links. When you are on the banking sites, you might get pop-up windows asking you to fill in your financial data. Avoid giving out any such details.

Watch out for fake online job advertisements that come with the ‘become-a-millionaire’ tag. These are some of the smartest tricks employed by the companies to castle the innocent online enthusiasts. Just think. Will any company offer their services for someone who doesn’t have any sort of experience in the job?

Make sure you scan your system regularly not only with the anti-virus software but also with anti-spam and spyware tools just to be on the safer side. Update your firewall on a regular basis.

Cody is a freelance writer and blogger. He writes on a wide range of topics encompassing entertainment, technology, environment, health, and self improvement. He likes surfing the web for information on various stuff with his high-speed Internet connection powered by Xfinity Internet.