Protecting Yourself from Online Scams

An unfortunate facet of modern society is the amount of people that are quite prepared to fraudulently rip off unsuspecting (and often overly trustworthy) small-business owners.  With the Internet still being such a new phenomenon that many people still don’t feel confident with there is no end of scam artists lining up to fleece your hard earned savings.

A great resource that the Australian government has put together is a website called Scam Watch.  This Web site provides Australians with a wealth of information regarding current scams that they are aware of.  A couple of handy tips that they provide for protecting yourself from on-line fraudsters include:

E-mail Best Practices

• Do not open suspicious or unsolicited emails (spam): delete them.
• Do not click on any links in a spam email, or open any files attached to them.
• Never call a telephone number that you see in a spam email.
• NEVER reply to a spam email (even to unsubscribe).

Protecting yourself on the Internet

• If you want to access an internet account website, use a bookmarked link or type the address in yourself: NEVER follow a link in an email.
• Install software that protects your computer from viruses and unwanted programs and make sure it is kept up-to-date.Beware of free websites and downloads (such as music, adult sites, games, movies). They may install harmful programs without you knowing.
• Check the website address carefully. Scammers often set up fake websites with very similar addresses.
• Never enter your personal, credit card or online account information on a website that you are not certain is genuine.
• Never send your personal, credit card or online account details through an email.
• Try to avoid using public computers (at libraries or internet cafes) to do your internet banking.
• Do not use software on your computer that auto-completes online forms. This can give internet scammers easy access to your personal and credit card details.
• Choose passwords that would be difficult for anyone else to guess.

The best advice I can give you is to always be sceptical of anything that turns up unexpected and make sure that you keep your virus and spyware software completely up-to-date.

If anybody else has any tips or advice on protecting yourself online please feel free to chime in through the comment section below.