Scam

 

Online scams are a huge problem in the world today and can be hard to detect, so we've put together 5 tips below to help you stop falling for any tricksters.

The key is to not spend money on something you don't need, which means that it's probably just an e-scam. If you're going through online fraud right now, do your research before parting with anything but what you genuinely need and ask yourself if this is an actual legitimate company or business looking to get their hands on you. This is a crucial step because as soon as you buy or get any kind of service online, scammers start pouncing.

If you need some extra cash by the end of the day, then use services like PayPal, Bitcoin, Paypal, and others.

For example, you might be thinking about using these sites to pay for food at one of your local restaurants, but you'll find you'll never finish paying for those items unless you have PayPal or another online payment processor to take the order.

Instead of giving away all the details of what you want from your website, make sure you have enough info up front that people can see clearly. You're more likely to fall for a scam if you're asking for too much more than you need because the site will look suspiciously similar to a bank account or email address. Try and keep your site simple and clean.

The next thing you need to do is figure out who the person trying to con you is. Go find their IP addresses and contact them by phone or message. They'll use different methods and each of the answers should tell you all they know about the person pretending to be you when you reach his web page. When talking with the individual, remember you are dealing with a real human being and have proof when you tell the person 'hey my name is and they 'are you there?' The next time you go shopping online, look online to see if anyone has sent out emails that say otherwise. There's no point in doing anything online when you feel like you've been hacked because you're vulnerable to scammers just now and again.

The last tip is to check every link on your site that says 'see our FAQs for details. Don't click links if you think it looks suspicious. Also, make sure your site includes HTTPS to secure information on your internet browser. It may sound like a few little things, but they could easily lead to a job doing scam work and make you look like an amateur.

Remember there's only a small number of websites doing legitimate businesses and they're also quite effective in getting people's data, so you can't rely on any one company to keep you. Use common sense instead of relying on anyone to look after your details.

So, without further ado, here's our list of five ways to stay safe online:

1) Make sure the images linked on a particular site aren't fake. I mean, isn't that pretty? You don't want someone else having done an image swap out to try and grab your money, just like the poster guy in The Birds did on eBay. Or what happened to Pawnee in Little Women? Just because something was popular once doesn't mean it's good, it just means that a certain group of people found ways of making money out of it. Not everything goes perfectly well with marketing and advertising, but that doesn't make it any less important. One of the best ways to protect yourself when you're researching something new is by checking if an ad has been faked out or changed.

2) Beware of freebies. It seems like everyone is doing their giveaway. But, it usually takes place when you visit a website, so why shouldn't it be any stranger? We have heard stories of people receiving free Facebook likes, money, vouchers, or even products if they purchase something. People are buying things and receiving them. Just make sure you have access to any relevant accounts/email and wait for your chance to open the thing that you bought as fast as possible.

3) Do not disclose passwords. Most websites or social media platforms store your password. So, it's always a good idea to change them before you start using any other account. A great way to avoid this is with two-factor authentication. Now, it requires you have both the text and password and not just the username and password. On a site like GitHub, you can add a 2FA code and then share it. Most companies have made it easy and you can scan for a QR code on websites to verify you've got it, or you can print it off on paper and show it. For social media sites such as TikTok, you usually have to put the password you create on an empty document with no pictures and then upload it for verification. It's quite annoying to watch for the users who don't realize how easy it is to hack into places it's not intended for.

4) Keep an eye on spam mail. Some websites will send out emails telling you to pay a certain amount of money to get access to certain features of their platform and to register with them a. These things often come from hackers or people hoping to do their illegal stuff. Even though it sounds a bit pointless, you might feel tempted to download and install whatever they ask for until someone asks you to delete the file and throw away the membership. Don't let it bother you, though, and keep your eyes peeled. Check that the offer is genuine and also ensure that you don't have paid to receive it. Remember never to download something you didn't need! And don't forget that there's nothing worse than deleting all your files and losing everything because they don't give you what you asked for. No matter how you've planned to reply to an email or post something on Instagram, don't be shy about informing someone that their product doesn't suit you because you weren't told this was. There are a lot of tricks and apps on the market that will suggest a link that takes them to the app they were promised they would see. You don't want to go down that path and be taken by a scammer just in case they say you can download it and have the app.

5) Always check the password on any website you're doing a transaction on. Especially if they're selling something or something that might give you information that you don't want. For example, Amazon has recently begun offering shoppers a free trial period to test their products, so the company should not have given out any information about how it was going to work and you shouldn't believe anything but that you were asked to log in or that they have a partnership with that company to run campaigns to sell your purchases. The same thing applies to Google search results as well. Check the website because they might have leaked any hidden information about yourself! Maybe there in the description is a big worded statement that's not necessarily true but they are trying to attract you to click on it, but make sure to read it carefully and don't trust anything at all.