Avoid Being Scammed Online
According to IMRG (Internet Marketing and Retail Group), Brits are spending approximately £4.3 billion online.
With so many of us pumping our credit card details into internet shopping sites on a daily basis, how can you make sure they’re not ending up in the hands of a cyber criminal? PC Tools has put together their top five tips to make sure you can shop online without the worry.
1. Look for the padlock
If you can see it in the bottom right hand corner of your browser it’s a good sign that the site you are on is secure.
2. Be click aware
Be wise about clicking on links in email from online retailers. Cybercriminals wanting to steal your personal information can now create emails to look exactly like those that come from online stores. What may look legitimate could in fact be malicious. Check with the store if you’re worried.
3. Avoid using the same password for all your accounts
Whether it’s your credit card or your online bank there’s always a tendency to use the same password for all of your logins. Don’t! Otherwise, if a cyber criminal cracks one password, they’ve found the lot and they’ll be shopping on your behalf!
4. Don’t give out too many personal details to social networking sites
Most sites, like Twitter or Facebook, should only require your basic contact details (name, address and contact number) to register for services.
Always be cautious if a site requests too much information you may end up with someone or something spying on your machine to get your credit card details when you’re shopping.
5. Protect your PC or laptop for free!
It’s the only way to make sure that there is nothing nasty lurking on your computer watching what you do. If you’re worried you can download ThreatFire www.threatfire.com from PC Tools.
It will continually protect your PC against attacks by detecting malicious behaviour, such as capturing your keystrokes when typing in your bank details or stealing your data from online credit card purchases.
Some PC Tools statistics
· An online identity is stolen every 3 seconds making millions of us susceptible to financial fraud
· Cybercrime is a worth $1 trillion dollars globally
· One third of Brits never update their internet security software
· One in ten Brits hasn’t ever installed any computer protection
· Half of all Brits tend to ignore security warnings when they pop up on their machine
· Over half of all women in the UK will happily open an attachment from a friend without checking it’s legitimate
· 44% of women are unaware that malicious threats can be transmitted on sites like Facebook and Twitter
Tagged in Money