People can fall prey to internet scams most any time, but when the economy is bad, even more people are victimized. Because they’re desperate to make money or find a job, too often unsuspecting people lose not only their savings but their identity by not recognizing the signs of a scam.
What is Cyber Theft
Cyber theft is using computers, as well as communication systems to steal information electronically. By hacking into someone’s computer or into a group of computers, internet computer thieves can transfer funds into their own bank accounts.
Because considerable amounts of money can be stolen through illegally transfer internet theft is a growing concern. According to a Computer Crime Research Center article, the typical American company loses about six percent of its proceed to crime, fraud and theft, with most of due to deceptive internet means.
How Internet Scams Begin
Most scams begin by sending an email, luring computer users to share pertinent financial information such as credit cards and bank account numbers, as well as including usernames and passwords.
People are also scammed by regular postal mail. Sometimes a postal address is snagged by either a spyware program or spam email you may have replied to with your snail mail address in the reply.
How to Recognize an Internet Scam
A few general red flags can label suspicious emails as fraudulent. Here are tips for recognizing a scam.
- Don’t click on links or respond to emails asking for personal or account information, including user details.
- Never send anything to strangers who email you asking for money or personal information.
- Be suspicious of unsolicited emails that include attachments and do not click on attachments. Especially, ignore links and responses to emails asking for personal or account information, including user details.
- Don’t clink on email links to groups and organizations of which you’re not a member. Reputable sites such as Paypal and Amazon will never send you email if you’re not already a member.
- Don’t respond, by clicking on links to competition or lottery emails that you have never signed up for, If you you’ve never entered a competition you can’t win anything.
- Don’t use weak, simple or default passwords on online sites.
- Ignore pop-up ads or links in email offers as often these are phony sites disguised as legitimate retail sites.
- Be leery of holiday coupon offers and gift cards sent in emails as these usually have malicious links with the offer that can result in downloading information-stealing Trojans or hackers seeking bank account information.
Examine URLs in Email Links
By studying the real URL address the user can identify a phony address. This is done by looking at the status bar found at the bottom of a browser screen. By hovering the mouse cursor above the link, the URL should appear in the status bar, pointing to the main domain of the company. Any discrepancy of the authentic domain (even if the server is secure) is a fraud. This can lead to virus infection and hackers trying to steal your information and identity.
Because most people are basically greedy, there’s always a temptation to see if something is really true. But if something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is a scam. But by following common senses and identifying the signs of fraud you can stay safe online without being a victim of fraud.
 |
