How To Stay Clear of Online Scams
The online scams on the Internet are hidden like landmines,
ready to explode on the unsuspecting surfer who happens to
believe what they say. These web scams have the ability to take
not just your cash but also your identity if you don't know how
to protect yourself.
Most of the sites that you find online are legitimate and offer
you goods or services with a secure method of payment. However,
there are web scams where scammers set up mirror sites to the
original site and hope to trick online shoppers into believing
they are at the real website.
The most common way that scammers manage to get away with this
is by setting up their site so that it is almost identical to
one that already exists.
Then they run an email advertising campaign relating to the
products they sell at the site. The links in the email look as
if they are going to the real site, but they actually lead to
the mirror site and anything ordered at the fake site doesn't
really exist and the scammers take the money.
Identify theft scams work in a similar way. The scammers send
out emails which look as if they come from well known websites.
These types of online scams are commonly known as phishing.
They harvest email addresses from various sources and send out
emails requesting you to update your information at whichever
site they are copying.
When you click on the link contained in their email, you will
not be taken to the real site, but rather one that has been set
up by the scammers to appear legitimate. Any information you put
into this site will be able to be used by the scammers,
including your address and credit card number.
It's easy to become a victim to these online scams because they
are very convincing. But there are a few steps you can take to
reduce the chances of being caught in these online scams.
1. Don't visit or shop at the site named in the email -
delete it immediately.
2. If you do use the site, read the email carefully but
DO NOT click on any of the links contained in it. Instead, open
up your web browser and type in the URL of the site and then
check your account status.
If there is nothing there that looks wrong, forward the email
to the people who run the site. Many of the more popular sites
have emails specifically for this such as "scam@ abc.com..."
3. When using your credit card to pay for items online,
make sure that there is a secure payments system in place. If
there isn't use a paypal account instead.
That way if you have fallen victim to scammers tricks, you will
only lose the actual amount of the transaction but you won't
have given out your credit card information.
Scammers are smart and very convincing but hopefully these few
tips can help you reduce the chances of being caught in any of
these online scams.
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