Ever since the internet has been around people have been using it to scam other people out of money.
Whether they come at you over the phone, through and email or through a web site, criminals know people are very active during the Christmas holiday season and up there game to scam plenty of Australian computers users out of their hard earned money.
Some of these scams are quite elaborate and use a lot of moving parts. But for the most part you can protect yourself by being aware of what is going on and doing the right these to help reduce your exposure to potential financial and personal loss.
Holiday and Flight Fake Websites
These are the websites that get people the most. Christmas time is expensive so criminal enterprises hurry t construct fake holiday and flight booking websites which look very legitimate.
Sometimes they give hints away they are not good, such as misspellings of words or are too eager to try and get you money and force a payment.
For me as a personal rule I never book a flight or holiday on website I have never heard of before or only if I know someone who has used them before and received their goods and services.
Also you can do your own research. If a booking site has flight or hotel details on it you would like to book, you can also search Google and find the hotel or air service and call them directly and ask if it is safe to book through the website in question. All you have to do is ask them if they are a booking partner.
At the end of the day, never give your money or payment and personal details to someone you do not trust.
Adware Infected Computer
Be careful your computer does not have Adware on it.
Adware is a form of virus and means “Advertising Software”. Unlike a virus doing damage to your computer, adware infects your computer and bombards your internet activity with advertisements.
Most of these ads are not real and are directed at stealing your money. They will take you to fake websites with great deals but once you pay them or give them your money, you will never hear from them again or see your purchases.
Adware is not particularly hard to remove from a computer unless it comes prepacked with other malicious software as well.
Antivirus programs are not great at identifying adware,but you usually know yourself when you start seeing more ads than normal or too many popups on particular websites or other internet activity.
Online Shopping
It doesn’t take a genius you realise online shopping hits its peak during the Christmas season, so it stands to reason this is when criminals are most active during the year trying to scam you out of money.
Its hard to know what sites are legitimate or not, with so many different options and websites these days, there are always new sites.
You have to be smart when doing online shopping.
If a deal is too good to be true, do i really need to finish this sentence?
The great thing about the internet is, it really has given everyone a voice on the world stage. Some might argue this isn’t really a great thing, but if there is a problem with a website or someone is out there doing something illegal, the chances are you are not their first potential victim.
If you are suspicious of a website, or even if you just want to do some research before using, jump into Google and find out some more about them.
If they have no reviews at all I do not use them. And if they are criminal and rip customers off there will be many people from all over the world talking about and reporting them.
Phishing Emails and Scams
Phishing email scams, are emails sent to potential victims to try and get personal information, money and other important details.
Criminals know a lot of people use certain services such as, Ebay, Paypal, Tesltra, Ergon etc. They know if they send out enough emails to enough people pretending to be one of the company’s, sooner or later they will get some bites because of the sheer number of Townsville customers who use these services, and that’s why they call it Phishing, a play on fishing.
Phishing scams are a powerful tool in the criminals repository of online scams, and many Townsville online computer users fall victim to them every day.
The fortunate thing is, most are easy to identify.
For starters, in 25 years of using and paying bills online, I am yet to come across an online services which has email or called me asking for my personal details such as login details, username and password.
Also, for me personally, when I look at these fake phishing emails pretending to be from legitimate companys, there is just something about them which doesn’t look right.
Whether they are using an ugly font, the emails look out of proportion of there are misspellings, i can usually tell just by looking something isn’t right.
Also, do not look at the name from which they are pretending to send from. Look at the actual email address they are using. And if it doesn’t properly represent the company they are pretending to send from, such as a Gmail email sending a Ergon Energy Bill, discard the email immediately.
You can always call the company as well and ask them if the email is really from them before continuing, they will certainly be able to tell you.
Phone Charity Scams
Phone charity scams are particularly prevalent this time of year as they play on the giving spirit and help you will help people less fortunate than you are at Christmas time.
Originally these scams where mostly over the telephone. But as the internet has [progressed these scams are finding more and more victims online every year.
Phone charity scams can take the form of websites, emails and telephone calls so all the rules and scenarios I have previous mentioned applies to these as well.
If you are approached over the telephone to give to a charity and you wish to, I suggest you find out where they are from, do your own research and then call them back on the number you find, not the one they give you.
If your operator is real, they will have no problem with this. If they are fake scammers, they will try to not let you go and become pushy.
This is a great indicator of if they are legitimate or not.
