Scam, Frauds and identity theft are just some of the threats encountering by the internet users. For the new users this kind of occurrence during their search or conversation on the internet can give them quite idea that these are likely important and can simply hook them up in just a single click. So, if you are one of them and or think that you have been a witness of these blue moons or just simply to be aware about and safeguard yourself, below are the lists of activities or actions that you can take in order to put a fence on your side.
2. Scam, Frauds and identity theft are just
some of the threats encountering by the
internet users. For the new users this kind
of occurrence during their search or
conversation on the internet can give them
quite idea that these are likely important
and can simply hook them up in just a single
click. So, if you are one of them and or
think that you have been a witness of these
blue moons or just simply to be aware about
and safeguard yourself, below are the lists
of activities or actions that you can take in
order to put a fence on your side.
3. 1. Do not use or carry a checkbook
When you are paying stuff, it suggests being it in cash or
credit card. It’s safer to pay your bills through your bank
or credit unification online bill paying service which is
usually free.
4. 2. Buy and use a paper cutter
Identity thieves actually go through homeowner’s trash to
acquire personal information. For you to put off these
thieves objectives, feel Secure to cut any documents that
have your social security number or other financial
information, such as the bank account number of yours,
credit card numbers and the like that can possibly give
these people your personal identity. If you don’t have paper
cutter make use of an alternative through burning these
documents completely.
5. 3. Freeze your credit
This is to hands off scammers from opening unauthorized
accounts in your name or identity. Even if your state is one of
the few that does not allow freeze, you can still freeze your files
at some of the leading major credit bureaus out there.
6. 4. Make a Do-not-Call List
5. Make a statement to block credit card offers
6. Always put your Social Security card in a safe place
When you renew your driver’s license, make sure the DMV does not
use your Social Security number as your driver’s license number.
7. 7. Make use of a different email addresses
8. Use a separate email address
This is when you post messages to any public forum, such
as newsgroups and mailing lists. Make an email account for
such private conversation purposes and for another for your
public identity to put a stop to this growing identity
theft. Never use your personal email address in public
because you might receive a number of different spams. You
can periodically check this email account to see what spam
is and what isn’t. A bonus is that Yahoo’s spam blocker is
better than those from most ISP’s! And your main personal
email address won’t be as clogged with spam. Some ISP’s
like AOL and BellSouth.net give you multiple email
accounts free with your paid service.
8. 9. Do not give any financial information
Your money in the bank is the major goal of scammers. So
when you are on the situation of asking somebody your
financial account which reason is pleasing to the ear such as
they are just to check your account and credit card number,
specifically you social security number on the phone or
online, unless you initiate the call and you know the
organization you’re dealing with.
10. Do not put an interest into such “win a
vacation”
Do not fill out the “win a vacation” and other promotions
you see in stores and shopping malls. Upon writing or
entertaining it can give you junk mailing list and guarantee
calls from persistent, high-pressure salesmen.
9. 11. Do not make an advance copy of your driver’s
license, telephone, or social security numbers on
your checks.
12. Report lost or stolen checks right away.
The bank can block payment on the check numbers that are
missing. Also, review new checks you receive, to make sure
none has been stolen in transit.
13. Store new and cancelled checks, credit card
statements, medical bills, anything with confidential
information, in a safe place and cut or burn them when you
are done with them.
10. 14. Secure your Personal Identification
Numbers of Pin Numbers for your ATM and
credit cards, and do not write on anything
or keep your pins with your cards. You should also
secure your ATM card and credit card receipts, for
thieves might use it to have access on your
accounts.
15. Use different cases in selecting Personal
Identification Numbers for your ATM and credit
cards, and passwords that allow you to
access other accounts. Do not use birth dates, a part
your Social Security number or driver’s license
number, address, nor children’s or
spouse names.
11. 16. Make use of a good anti-virus software anti-adware
software and a hardware firewall on your computer, and keep
them up to date. You need all three. Almost all modern
Routers (Dlink, LinkSys, NetGear, Buffalo, Airlink, etc.) have a
hardware firewall built in. See the left side of this page
for the current recommendation for ant-virus / anti-malware
programs.
17. Don’t make an outgoing mail in your mailbox
Drop it into a secure, official Postal Service collection box.
Thieves may use your mail to steal your identity
12. 18. Report to the company immediately, if
regular bills fail to reach you.
Someone might give a false record of you and your family
to divert your information to his or her address.
19. If your bills include suspicious charges, do
not ignore it.
Instead, investigate immediately to head off any possible
fraud before it occurs.
20. Check your credit report every day.
Federal laws enable you to acquire one form credit report
from each of the 3 major credit reporting agencies per year.
13. 21. Prefer to use disposable addresses
There are services online; some are free like SneakMail that
provides you disposable addresses that can be deleted if they
begin to receive spam messages. The disposable email addresses
forwards email to a real email address of yours, but the sender
cannot see this. If you create a unique address for each email
newsletter or forum you subscribe to you can get rid of the
address is it gets too much spam and just start using another
email address.
22. Stop purchasing a product or render any services to
any company that sends you spam.
Do not even visit their sites or ask for more information. Always
bare in mind that, since they send out millions of spam emails,
they only need a tiny fraction of responses to be profitable. And
if that doesn’t convince you, consider this: the vast majority of
spam “offers” are in fact scams.
14. 23. Filter your email program
Outlook does this quite easily. When you open an email and
realize that it is spam, just click on Actions then Create Rule,
then select an appropriate action, such as “from” then click
“Move e-mail to folder” and select the “Deleted Items” folder.
That’s it! You’ll never receive email from that particular
address or subject again.
Do not post your address in HTML format
Otherwise you will be spammed, since address-harvesting
spiders (programs) extract your email address from the website
and add it to the spammer’s lists. Instead use feedback forms
through PHP, ASP, or JSP that hide the email address, OR post
the email address as a GIF (image file).
2. Do not get so exited
If someone emailed you or sends you message or
acknowledgement that you win from lottery or any raffles from
a “randomly selected from a database of email
addresses.”Lastly, Multi-level marketing is a scam.
