Something that everyone needs to be conscious of are the threats of identity theft. While it used to be that nasty perpetrators and scammers could not take over an “identity” without physically swiping a wallet or something of the sort, today it can be done just by finding out a password.
Here are one or two tips that should aid in avoiding losing your identity to a scammer:
Never write any sensitive info into a website that just has “http” at the front of the web site name. Any secured website will have an “https” at the beginning of the domain name. The https indicates that the data that you send through the website is protected with software security.
Be suspicious of e-mails that make claims to be from your bank, PayPal, or any other financialy oriented organisation. Regularly conmen send out emails that are known as “phishing” emails, which falsely claim to be from a financial company. They ask the receiver to click thru a link on the e-mail to go to the site. The site that they click to is really a fake version of the site that was claimed to be. By “signing-in” to the site, you are actually just giving your info to conmen. Bad move!
Even if you get an e-mail from your spouse, you must be careful nowadays. If anything doesn’t seem right about an e-mail from a pal or relation it is probably an excellent idea to get in touch with them offline. Give them a call and ask whether or not they actually did send you that email asking for $1,000 sent to a PayPal account.
Careful on social sites like Facebook and Twitter- Do you ever stop to wonder who those people are on Facebook that want to be your buddy. Often they’re stalkers or scammers who are trying to learn more about you, and not for your benefit.
Keep safe!
Hugh Jones writes about everything related to dispute resolution from trial court to settlement to counseling. Whenever using a dispute resolution provider he endorses doing an inclusive background investigation of the arbitrating agencyor mediator.