Phishing Scams: 5 Excellent Tips That Will Protect You
Phishing scams are growing in popularity and they are a common cause of identity theft. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are when it comes to the internet, it’s easy to click on a link without knowing if you can trust the source or not. The only way you can truly prevent a phishing scam is if you are vigilant of everything you click on but other than that, you’re on your own. If you are looking for more tips that will better protect you while browsing, have a look below.
Don’t Fall Victim to Scare Tactics
Hackers who develop phishing scams will say anything to get your attention because they know as soon as they’ve got it they’re going to be one step away from stealing your identity. You may receive emails saying if you don’t give them your credit card details they will get in contact with your local authorities to say you’ve been looking at illegal content online – and this is just one of the many ploys they might try.
Never Reveal Your Personal Information
It’s important that you never reveal your personal information by emails to someone you don’t know; they could easily have enough personal information about you already and just require your age or middle name to steal everything you own.
Avoid Clicking on Links in Emails
A lot of the emails you receive will likely be spam – and that is, unfortunately, one of the problems that are not going to go away anytime soon. Spam is annoying, but it’s the phishing emails you need to be wary of. Don’t click on any links from unknown email contacts and you will be safe. Using the likes oft heemailfinder is a terrific way to verify email addresses in your contact list.
Only Browse Websites You Trust
It’s easy for certain websites to implement viruses and features that can track you or worse, steal your data. It’s also important to not only browse websites you trust but only download from websites you trust – the last thing you want is to download a virus or malware to your computer that damages all your files or even hardware.
Use Internet Security Software
It’s always wise to invest in internet security software to provide you with an extra layer of security when it comes to browsing. All software can detect whether a site is safe or not and it will warn you when you enter a dubious website. Internet security products also have excellent virus and malware detecting software, so they will also quarantine bad viruses – or delete them altogether.
The internet is, unfortunately, full to the brim of untrustworthy sites and hackers looking to take advantage of your data. If you follow the above tips when you are browsing and you are always extra wary of certain websites, there isn’t much that can harm you, especially if you have good internet security at your disposal.