Internet Fraud

How To Safeguard Yourself Against Internet Fraud

Internet fraud is something which has traditionally bothered people new to online commerce, and it has been a significant deterrent to people wanting to do business on the Internet. They have always been worried, and with some degree of justification, that their personal information would not be safe if it was typed into a web form. The truth is that, provided that certain simple security procedures are followed, Internet commerce is actually safer than buying goods in the offline world.

The reason that Internet commerce is relatively safe is simple. The degree of encryption used in secure Internet communication is such that it is virtually unbreakable. Contrast this with the situation in physical shops not so long ago, where a thief only had to have a reasonable match for the signature on the back of a card to be able to make fraudulent purchases. The key step you need to take is to watch the address bar in your browser, and make sure that it says “https” and not “http”. If it does, you are using a secured web page.

There are tools which perpetrators of Internet fraud use to try to trap the unwary into giving them their financial information. One of the most common is to send emails which look as though they have come from the legitimate organizations, but which are fake. These emails can be blatant, and simply ask the victim for personal information, as many will fall into the trap. Do not ever reply to an email asking for personal information, especially not passwords. A legitimate organization will never send such requests.

Often, the fraudsters are more subtle, and will just ask you to click a link where you will be taken to a web page which is an exact copy of a legitimate web page owned by the real organization. It will be a copy webpage which will send the information to the criminal's email address. It is strongly advised that you never click a link in an email to go through to a sensitive web page. Type the URL directly in to the browser. This is true especially of PayPal emails, which are an easy target for the fraudsters.

PayPal itself can be a security risk if you are not careful. Make sure that your PayPal password is as strong as possible, and do not take chances with it. Be aware that if a fraudster does manage to gain access to your PayPal account, they can not only spend the money in there, they can spend the money in any bank account attached to the account, without needing the bank details. It is best to keep low amounts in a PayPal account, and in the attached bank account. Move any sizeable funds to another account. Taking a few simple precautions, and making sure you always type URLs directly into the browser, should ensure that you never become a victim of Internet fraud.

 

 

 

 

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