10 Ways to Avoid the High Tech Criminals

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More and more of us spend a great deal of our time on the internet, and they cyber criminal know it. They are coming up with more and more ways to scam and con us into giving our personal information to them so they can use it later for their benefit.


Listed below you will find 10 tips to help you stay safe while surfing the web:

Social Networking Scams:


Online social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn continue to grow in popularity, and with this growth the online scams continue to grow as well.


Protect Yourself:

• If something you get from a friend or family member - strange looking web address, or something that is worded strangely, or sounds like something they wouldn't say or write - be sure to double check with them to ensure they meant to send it.
• Protect your login information by using strong passwords that include both upper and lower case letters, some numbers and adding symbols such as ! @ # etc, are great ways to further strengthen your password and protect your social sites.
• Limit what information you share on these social sites and gaming sites, things like birth dates, cell phone numbers, travel plans, etc are great ways for criminals to steal your identity, begin stalking you, etc.
• Install and run anti-malware software that can automatically block any malicious files before they land on your computer.

Online Charity Hoaxes:

A lot of online charity hoaxes take advantage of people who want to help people out and make donations. The national white color crime center reports that over $122 million was lost during fraudulent online charity donations.

Protect Yourself:

• Watch for spam or unsolicited email that asks you to click a link and then asks for a donation. Unless the email is from an organization that you have previously signed up to receive emails from. 
• If you give donations through texting don't enter any credit card or bank account information, your cell phone is automatically billed and your donation will be added to it.
• It's always a good idea to do your research on charities before you decided to make a donation whether online or by text message.

Scareware Scam:

This kind of scam is growing in popularity, here's what happens: You are surfing the internet when a pop up shows up telling you that your computer is infected with a virus. When you click on the scan now button or the remove threat button, you are then directed to a page where it asks you to purchase a virus protection software. When in fact the pop up that warns you of a virus is in fact the virus itself.

Protect Yourself:

• The best way to deal with this is to first ignore them, pop ups are not the best method for learning about viruses or virus protection softwares. Close the pop up and run your anti-malware software. This should take care of the problem
• Don't let yourself be rushed into a buying decision because of the pop up. 
• Do not hand over your bank account or credit card information before researching the company, only invest in quality and honest companies when buying an anit-virus or anti-malware software.