How To Avoid A Scam? : Everything You Need To Know! >> The article below educates every reader to protect from online frauds, so please keep on reading.
The online world is fascinating and makes our life easier and faster, but it is equally dangerous too. Many people Worldwide are targeted and hacked every year. It becomes difficult to keep yourself in a safe zone because of the high skill and technology used by the scammers.
But there are few ways you should know to save yourself from a fake world, so in this article, we will tell you How To Avoid A Scam? Please keep on reading till the end, and do not miss any crucial information.
Table of Contents
What are Digital Scams?
It is a type of cybercrime that uses high technology and the internet to trap innocents, and steals their highly confidential data, money, or a password easily. Digital scams vary from email spam to online scams.
There are millions of victims Worldwide yearly who are getting themselves into a trap. Based on the FBI 2017 crime report, IC3 received over 300,000 complaints, and victims lost over $1.4 billion money.
Hence it is our responsibility and necessary to know how online scam is done? How to avoid fraud; everything is covered in the below article; please go through it.
How to Identify whether the Site You are Using is Safe or Not?
- Check whether the site URL is starting with HTTPS because it is safe to use and protects your confidentiality of data.
- Whereas the URL starting with HTTP is not secure, take care while entering sensitive data here.
- The site’s creation date or domain age is always important, as new sites are hard to believe.
- Use various tools to check the trust score of the portal available over the internet. A good trust index is always worth visiting.
- Please go through the customer or user reviews of the site because real users can guide us better.
- Cross-check if the portal is active on various social media pages or not. Its presence on any social network is a good sign.
- Finally, any reputed or standard genuine website never makes a mistake like, a misalignment, grammatical mistakes, font or logo change. So have a clear look at the site.
These are some ways to identify whether the portal you are using is safe or not. Now let’s look in to the topic that how your personal data get leaked.
How Scammers Fetch your Personal Information?
- In online shopping: Scammers create a fake website and sell the product at a cheap price. Customers get attracted to the cheap price and buy it online, paying digitally. The scammers either send different products or take the money and disappear.
- Using an unsafe site: When you use an unsafe site and pay money using your credit card, the scammers fetch details, draw all money, and run away.
- Spoofing: This applies to emails, phones, calls, computers and sites. Spoofing is a technique where a person or a program by malfunctioning identifies as an authority. This way, your personal sensitive data leak to the scammers.
- Data Leak: Here, knowingly or unknowingly, private data is leaked to the unauthorized source. This way, confidential data reaches the scammer’s hand easily due to high technology usage.
How To Avoid A Scam?
- Password: Change your password frequently, and create a strong, unique password. Use upper case, lower case letters, symbols, and special characters to make it a rigid password.
- Site URL: Always use encrypted websites that begin with “https” over “http.” Whenever the lock icon pop-up on the website you open means you are using an encrypted site, but double-check from your end is recommended here.
- Two-factor authentication (2FA): Turn on this amazing feature that needs two identification like a password and a special code.
- Don’t share personal information: Always remember never to share your personal details like full account number, signature, and password in the email. Use more secure services instead.
- Wiring Money: Whenever you use an electronic method for fund transfer, make sure you input all data correctly and sending money to a valid and safe source.
- Random Links: If you get any mail from an unknown source and have a link, don’t get curious to open the link. Downloading these kinds of links install harmful viruses into your system. And may steal your personal information.
- Freeze your Credit card: This ensures to prevent new lines of credit opened in your name.
How to Report various Scams?
It is necessary to report a scam. Whenever you see any scam going around you or you are into a trap, then report it immediately to the concerned team; Here is what you can do:
- For Spam Text: Suppose you receive any phishing message or text, please report by mailing to the authorities. Even you can launch a complaint at Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The authority takes care of it and tries to solve the issue genuinely.
- For Internet Fraud: Report the internet crime to the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center), the authority that looks after the scam.
- For Digital Shopping scams: If you found any fraud in the online purchase, immediately report it to Econsumer.gov to recover the loss.
- You can also take local police department help if you come across any fraud.
Taking these actions makes you recover from the loss; it also helps concerned people know how criminals are phishing you.
The Bottom Line
Curiosity drags people into a scam. So beware, readers, everything that shines is not gold. Please double-check whenever you are using a new portal, change your password frequently, and be careful while giving any personal details. The scammers are waiting to catch the fish in an online world. We hope the essential information given here are useful.
Do you have anything to say about; How To Avoid A Scam? Have you come across any scam? How have you faced it? Please feel free to write it in the below section. Your effort and time is highly appreciated here.