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Staying Safe on the Internet
The Internet is a truly remarkable invention. Never before in human history has the exchange of information been so rapid and efficient. Unfortunately, as with any communication medium, the potential for fraud exists. In fact, because of the relative new-ness of the Internet many people are unfamiliar with the techniques that criminals and scam artists are using. Because the Internet moves so quickly, new schemes are constantly being developed. In 2003 the Federal Trade Commission received over half a million Internet related consumer fraud and identity theft complaints. The good news is that with a few common sense guidelines anyone can stay secure when they use email, the web or at any time when dealing with the Internet.
Just about everyone these days is familiar with email. This technology has modernized personal correspondence and made it possible to send a letter around the world in a matter of moments. The down side is that everyone who is familiar with email is also familiar with spam (also known as unsolicited commercial correspondence). While spam doesn't pose a direct threat to your financial well-being, it sure is annoying. Here are some tips to help stem the flow into your inbox.
- Never respond to a spam message or click on a link in one, especially the "Remove Me" link. Doing so lets the spammers know that your address is valid - and ripe for further spamming.
- Be careful giving your email address out; treat it as you would your home phone number. Don't give it to strangers. Consider getting a second, free address to use as a decoy when you fill out forms and such.
- Take advantage of your Internet Service Provider's spam protection tools. Most ISPs (and many email programs) have filters in place to deliver span to a certain folder or block it altogether.
Although many people think of email as private it is not a secure method of communication. It can sometimes be intercepted in transit and if you're using email at work, your employer is legally entitled to read your email. So never give any personal information via email, especially your social security number, credit card number or bank account number. You never know who you might be giving this information to. There is a nearly foolproof way to make sure the emails you send and receive are secure, but it requires you to coordinate with the person you're communicating with. This method is to encrypt your email, which means that your messages are sent in a nearly impossible to break code. The most common encryption standard for email is made by PGP Corporation. While no encryption is completely unbreakable, it will deter anything below the James Bond level of snooping.
As spammers and con artists grow more sophisticated it is important to remember a simple rule:
- Never send something in an email that you wouldn't want everyone on the internet to know.
A final note on email: many email attachments are very dangerous. Even if an attachment seems to have been sent by someone you know, his or her machine could be infected by a virus that sends malicious email automatically. If something looks suspicious, check with the person that sent it. Never open an attachment from someone you don't know and never open an attachment that's an executable file (an application). That advice may not be directly related to Internet fraud but consider this: an attachment could be a Trojan Horse, a program that installs itself on your machine without your knowledge. Such a program could be capturing everything you type and relaying it to crooks.
The World Wide Web: we know it and we love it, but that doesn't mean there isn't a potential for fraud. Fortunately there is a secure way of transmitting personal information on the web. Any web page asking for sensitive data should be secured using Secure Socket Layers (SSL). When a webpage is secure the web address will look like this: https://www.amazon.com
Note the "https" at the beginning of the address. This prefix, as opposed to the normal "http" address, indicates that information sent to the webpage is encrypted. You'll also see a small key at the bottom of your web browser to indicate security. SSL not only encrypts data, but you also have the option to view the site's security certificate. This indicates that a trusted party, such as Verisign, has certified that the site is employing legitimate security practices. It is important to check the security certificate to make sure you're not submitting data to a scammer's site that happened to be secure.
Some web pages, looking to cut costs, have a customer submit their credit card information via an email form or other unsecure method. How can you tell? Such a page won't have the telltale signs that a secure page would. Sending this information unsecurely is a very bad idea. It also pays to be aware of a web merchant's privacy policy. A website without one may very well share your marketing information with spammers.
When surfing the web, it also is a very good idea to make sure your computer is secure. After all, it doesn't make sense to make sure make sure the sites you visit are safe if your own machine is vulnerable. Here are four easy things to do that will help keep your internet experience headache-free.
- Make sure your operating system has the latest security patches installed. Visit your manufacturer's web page and make sure your system is up to date.
- Install a utility to suppress pop-up windows. Not only are they annoying, some of them are disguised so that even if you think you're closing one you're actually opening another.
- Check that your virus protection software is up to date. Again, visit your developer's webpage to download any needed updates. Not running anti-virus software? No computer should be without it.
- Install software that will find and destroy any spyware on your system. Spyware is similar to Trojan Horses, but relays information about the web pages you visit. Who needs that? There's good, free software that will strip your computer of malicious programs. It may even make your computer run faster!
Ultimately, there is one security tool that offers protection from nearly any scam artist on the internet: common sense. The old aphorisms like "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" were never truer than they are today. Likewise, if a site looks untrustworthy... it probably is. Remember, never give out personal information over email. If eBay or PayPal or your local bank asks you to "verify" your account number or credit card number via email, it's a scam. A sad truth is many fraud victims simply gave their credit card number right to a thief posing as a trusted business. This so-called "social engineering" is no different from what con artists have been doing since the dawn of civilization. It's important to realize many of the same common sense rules apply on the electronic frontier. While it's easy to become a victim, staying safe and secure isn't very difficult either.
-InstantAcres.Com staff
Helpful links:
Federal Trade Commission
PGP Corporation
MIT's free PGP encryption software
Microsoft
Apple Computer
Verisign
(links will open in a new window)
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