With the ever changing of the new media and technology, it is no surprise that frauds and threats has been changing too. They make use of the internet to perform dishonest tasks such as cheating of money or misuse of other people identity. There are many kind of frauds and threats but they all have the same objective, that is to harm your computer or indirectly to you.
Threats
Threats would be referring to Virus threats. It harms your computer by infecting and destroying the data files within a computer. That's the reason why firewall and anti virus software are created.
However, even with best firewall and anti virus software program you may not be safe. By learning how to configure the firewall and anti virus software properly, you are reducing the chance of getting infected. To further reduce the chance of getting infected, we must do our parts too.
How can we do our parts?
Be alert when ever trying to send you weird looking web link or files. Here's an example,
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Take a close look at the web link. If you happen to click on the link, high chances that you will be infected with computer virus or spyware or even malware. If you ever encounter this kind of situation, best solution is to close the chat window immediately.
If your friend or some other people sent you a file and are unsure of the weird extension at the end of the file name, don't accept it as the file might contain threats to your computer.
Cyber Frauds
Cyber frauds causes harm indirectly to you. Their main aim are
- to get information such as personal particular from the user and misuse it.
- cheat your money through an online auction.
- phishing of your ID & passwords.
Frauds that seeks for personal particular
Frauds like Nigerian mail are interested in the information such as your bank account number or your personal particulars. Firstly they send you an article through your email, stating that you will receive an amount of money if you witness some transaction. Lastly, they will ask for your bank account number or personal particulars as well.
My advice is ignore and delete the mail right away.
Frauds that cheat your money through an online auction
One of the website can get your money cheated easily is ebay. If you wanted to buy something from ebay, think twice before you hit the 'buy it now' button. Some of the item price is really attractive as well as giving tons of actual information for the product to prove that the product itself is genuine. The fact is, the price is too good to be true.
No matter how many positive feedback the seller has, it won't show that he won't cheat on you as feedback can be done by the seller itself or using some software programs.
Below is an example of a Sony Vaio laptop being auction online. Take a good look at the price, it is too good to be true.
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Best solution to avoid been cheated is, if the price is too good to be true then don't buy it. If you happen to bought it and you realize is a fake good, immediately ask for refund and send the item back to the seller. If they turn down the refund request then treat it as an lesson and learn from it.
Frauds that uses website to phish your ID and passwords
This is another kind of frauds which uses a fake website to phish your ID and passwords. Their ultimate aim is to misuse your ID to do things such as spamming, sending of files which contain Virus threat or even do some transaction of your money without you knowing.
The most recent case of such frauds in Singapore is the fake DBS bank website where they uses the stolen ID and password to do money transfer online without you knowing. To prevent phishing, what we can do is to look and observe the website carefully.
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Notice the security lock? Only authentic website will have it and to prove that the website is secured (the website need to subscribe to SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) in order to have the website secure). It is best to know whether the website is secured before you do any login process.
Summary
- Relying on Anti-virus software or firewall itself is not enough. The best remedy for any diseases is prevention, same goes for computer.
- For cyber frauds, if you receive article similar to Nigerian mail, without hesitation just delete the mail right away.
- For online auction fraud, just have to be careful on what you are buying. If the price is too good to be true, then don't buy it.
- Lastly, remember to check the whether the website is secured before you key in any important information to the website.
Hope you guys know more about viruses and fraud after reading this article. Thanks for viewing!
