Tips to Avoid an Online Fraud

No wonder, every year millions of people fall prey to cybercriminals on the web. According to a recent report, the FBI registered a fact sheet, which stated that consumers lost around $1 billion of data worth through online scams. So if you’re shopping online or have to run an e-commerce website or even share your bank details with somebody on the web, here’s how you can protect yourself from online fraud:

• Keep Your System Up to Date

As a first thing, you need to keep your computer and other systems up to date, so you can rest assured about hackers not finding a way to penetrate your system. Ensure that you are about to enter a secured website. Secondly, don’t forget to install a top-notch anti-virus system that can easily protect the system from any prospective damage. Ensure to let the automatic updates remain turned on, so the new fixes can be made timely. 

• Look Out for Phishing Scams

These days, phishing scams are on the rise, so you need to watch out for them. If you don’t know, phishing scams are fraudulent practices and emails that are intended to extract the private information of the user. For instance, if you get a random email from a certain company, it will be hard for you to know if it’s verified or not. Unless you don’t rest assured about the email coming in from a well reputable source, you should never click on it. 

• Keep Your Passwords Personal

Although passwords are personal already, still a lot of people make the silly mistake of sharing them with friends and relatives. Despise sharing them with friends, since they might be tempted to share it with others. Secondly, never share your debit/credit card’s PIN with anyone. Once your password goes out, it will be hard to rest assured about the information being secure. Secondly, if you forget your password, you can easily recover it. 

• Shop Safely

One of the leading times when hackers can penetrate into your system or bank account is when you share personal details and passwords while shopping. Until you get internet fraud protection with FraudWatch, it will be hard to ensure, if you’re going to have a safer shopping experience on the web or not. Always trust a website, the URL of which starts from HTTPS. Secondly, once you visit the platform, do go through the testimonial section, so you can confirm the veracity of the platform. 

• Read the Privacy Policy of the Website

Although they are long and complex since it is best if you know about the personal information that will be collected from the website. However, if you don’t find the policy section as such, it will be best for you to do business elsewhere. Shady websites will seldom provide you with a privacy policy section. A privacy policy is an important part of a website because it informs the user of what information is going to be extracted, used and studied.