The Internet is a vast sea of information. A treasure trove of opportunities too. Such as how businesses can extend their reach worldwide through the power of social media.
Correspondingly, danger and threats lurk at every corner. The slightest mistake could result in your privacy being compromised. Worse, you could instantly lose important financial details such as credit card numbers.
Caution is thus paramount when browsing the Internet, and this begins with two simple precautions. Indeed, the Net is a wondrous place where you can find all the information you need, buy anything you want, even discover things you never knew existed. But before indulging yourself, you must take the necessary steps to secure your digital wellness.
You do not want to be the next name on the Net’s long list of scam victims.
1. Protecting your identity
When shopping online, one of the risks that you’d face is giving the details of your bank account to a site that isn’t trustworthy. Or should I say, deceptive.
Certain websites are purely set up to pilfer your financial details, all the while making false promises of great shopping deals and incredible bargains. In other words, it’s imperative that you know whether you can trust a site before releasing any information.
Outside of banking and credit card details, it might not be wise to reveal your physical address too. If you’re wondering “what is a physical address?” it’s your home address, your street, and your door number.
As necessary as it seems that you must reveal your physical address to receive a purchase, there are actually a number of alternatives. For example, virtual mailbox services.
Unless it’s an absolute must for you to receive your purchases at home, you should consider always keeping your home, i.e., personal address private.
2. Checking and Identifying Risky Sites
Since 2020, have you spent more time surfing the Internet because of COVID-19 lockdowns? If so, chances are, you are dazzled by the sheer number of websites and portal out there.
An endless ocean of sites each providing some sort of information or service. Usually, with no easy way for you to know which site to trust too.
Or not.
While no one method is a sure-fire, a combination of checks could give you a reliable clue. One check that might immediately tell if a site is risky is how it looks or works. Very often, sites that aren’t able to function properly or look cheaply designed is a sign that they are scams.
Another check would be whether the URL contains strangely misspelled characters. For example, “informetion” instead of “information.” This is a common tactic of phishers.
In some cases, the site in question might actually pass all such checks but even if so, if you still have a gut feeling that something is wrong, it’s better to be safe than sorry. After all, the Internet is chock-full of sites quickly and cheaply made to steal information from unsuspecting “customers.” Temporary scams, in other words.
Lastly, using the Internet doesn’t automatically mean that you or your information are already in danger; don’t get paranoid and miss out on true opportunities! Instead, careless browsing, indiscriminate downloading of files, and thoughtless revelation of personal information are the true dangerous practices.
These practices can cause you a world of headaches down the road. Worse, they can make you lose your identity and savings within minutes.
