In the online landscape, nothing is impossible. Whether in your personal space or business, you can get attacked by the criminals if you don’t shield yourself with necessary protection. Since anyone has the access to the internet, it wouldn’t serve a bed of roses without thorns.
If money is not behind the reason why most cybercrimes happened, it’s hard to tell what else is. To always be safe, both consumers and merchants need to always beware of being on the online platform.
1. Don’t be too fast to click
We all have seen at least once the message on screen that “You are attacked by virus! Download the antivirus XY to protect your computer!” or “You have won an iPad/Laptop/Xbox”. These pop-ups are made to look like real messages that you may get from Windows or from a typical security item. For this situation, to dispose the irritating pop-ups, we suggest scan your system with a good antivirus product. If you are not so lucky, sometimes you might end up with a malware, like Trojan or a keylogger.
This sort of message could likewise originated from most risky ransomware threats around, for example, CryptoLocker, which is fit for blocking and scrambling your operating system and demand you to pay some cash for the decryption key. So, before clicking the pop ups, try to think does it make sense an unknown company to gift you such an expensive gadget? Why can’t they post it to you too if they can afford such fancy prizes?
2. Don’t expect surprise gifts
You might probably receive an e-mail in the junk which calls you to confirm your delivery or your order. But, how are you sure it’s yours? Especially, when you did not order it or you have never heard about the company to be precise. Many strangers on the web who attempt to trick you into giving over confidential data with the aim to take what’s precious to you. For example, they pretend like they know you and customize the e-mail to look it is specially made to be yours.
You might think someone is giving you a present but you’ve got the wrong idea there. The address is yours, the phone number is yours and other informations are yours, 99% of yourself would say it’s yours, so why not try? They gave you a link to click and you automatically reached a hole of misery. Many things such as hacking your number to take your reload money on your phone, credit card or any other accounts can happen. Forget about getting surprises, save yourself first!
3. Always be wary and educated
It is a tragic reality when you're using the web but you have to be wary. You shouldn't give this a chance to make you stay away from the online platform or even doing online shopping. You must be aware of what you're doing and cautions of what you read on the web. There will be some time for people to get trapped in bank offers that guarantees you a lot of cash and already been pre-affirmed by the bank. You might want to consider looking into Google on what people said about it.
Make sure to check your credit card bill each month. If you have been charged for something without your knowledge, contact your credit card company as soon as possible. Often the false charges can recover.
4. Pay attention to security terms
The web address with change from "http" to 'https'. If in case you don't see this, don't purchase or check why it's not appearing, since the “s” stands for secure. To double confirm whether it is a secure side or not, check there will be a padlock sign in the browser window, which shows up when you attempt to log in. In case if you're using the latest version of browser, the address bar or the name the name of the site will turn into green colour.5. Read people’s feedbacks
Sale misrepresentation is a standout problem amongst the most widely recognized online scam and happens when you purchase something from online shopping website, never receive the item even after payment. To avoid this, be more careful when purchasing anything on online.
If the price of the thing is way too cheaper, you might need to have a closer look. Especially never miss the customer feedback response in the webpage. Make sure they get a good feedback and how often they sell the products. For instance don't purchase from anyone who doesn't have any feedback and rating rate lesser than 5.
If you are a merchant, always know that providing a secure website starts from you. Especially, when it comes to money-sensitive information. Make sure your customers won’t feel vulnerable while doing business with you. Prove to them that you are certified with necessary security standard such as SSL,
PCI DSS and etc.
| About the Guest Author:
Gangga Muniandy is an intern writer for a marketing department in a B2B company
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