Every day we are bombarded with news related to data breaches, identity theft, and fraud. But have you ever thought you can also become a victim of this growing concern of the modern age? If you are shaking your head in no, you need to think again. You don’t need to be a multimillion-dollar business or a celebrity to come under the radar of online fraudsters. Anyone can become a victim of this threat. It is way more common than you think. The reason is that we are always readily available to lurking online predators on social media, e-commerce sites, or online billing sites. Fraudsters are always stalking you, and you never know when you might get entrapped in their cast web.
The worst thing is that most people don’t know how and where these fraudsters have set their webs. That’s why people become their victims in ignorance, and fraudsters get away with the scam happily.
Here is how to report fraud in case you become prey to the online predator. But besides knowing that, you should also know some common ways that cheaters use to scam. Here is what you need to know to save yourself:
Table of Contents
Online Friends are not Always Friends:
We all know about the mania of social media and how it has captured and penetrated people’s life. Getting social on social media isn’t always the right way to make friends. You can make some good friends on social media, sure, but it can be the exact opposite. Maybe the person you know on social media as Jessica, your friend, is actually an online fraudster – your enemy. What makes social media a hub of online frauds and scams is its element of anonymity. Anyone can fake its identity and present himself as totally another person. And you can never find it out until you have already been scammed. So, don’t make every and any online person as your friend just because you want to see your online friend list expanding.
Emails can be Fraud’s Hail:
What if you get an email that you have been hired for your dream job on a whopping high salary? You will freak out and wouldn’t spend another second and click on it right away with a pounding heart – right? Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but that can be a trap to break into your system and hack important information such as bank account details or other personal information. One-click – and things will be over for you! So, before clicking any such email, you should be sure that you have ever applied to this job. And if you have already clicked, you should carefully check out the body of the email. Is it professionally written, have any grammatical mistakes and claim unrealistic things? If not, change your password immediately – it was a trap!
Online Shopping is Risky:
Online shopping stores have made our life easier on so many levels that we can write pages on it. But it has also made things easier for online scams. What can be better than this that the user is himself handing over its account details to you without any effort? That’s why you should only shop on authorized stores and those who offer end-to-end data encryption. Some online stores are not the e-commerce stores, but traps set by the fraudsters. They are fake, but these fake sites can scam you of your real hard-earned money. So, always watch your online shopping-spree to avoid any mess.
