Author: Bernard Pragides
Article:
So, you're new to the internet, and you've heard countless
breathless stories about the horrible things that can happen, or
have heard of the risks, and are now afraid that your computer
will magically transmit your credit card number to everyone in
Nigeria or some such. Let's dispel some myths, and give you a
solid basis in fact for how to work and use the internet to the
greatest advantage.
First, make sure that you only pass your credit card to a secure
connection; this is shown by having the letters "https" appear
before the web site address, rather than just "http". The "s"
stands for "secure". A secure connection will also show up as a
"lock" or "key" icon somewhere on your browser.
Second, never click on a link that comes to you by email from
someone you don't know and trust. Never open an attachment from
someone you don't know and trust; in particular, look at the
text of an email from someone who you may know and trust and ask
yourself "Did they actually write this?" - a lot of virus and
Trojan horse attacks try to scavenge an address book to send
themselves out to a wide array of hosts.
If you get an email from eBay, PayPal or Amazon.com that says
"Dear Valued Customer..." rather than using the name you
registered with them under, it's almost certainly a Phishing
attack. Phishing is a technique where crackers send out
thousands of carefully forged email addresses from domain names
that are close to the ones you'd use (like PayPa1.com, where the
"l" is replaced with the number "1"), with convenient links for
you to go in and "verify your account" or some such. These can
often (but not always) be identified by bad writing, peculiar
word choices, and things that make it clear that the author of
the email isn't a native English speaker/writer. Likewise, if
you hold your mouse over a link, and look at the browser window,
you can see where the link goes to - there's a little space at
the bottom left of the browser window in both FireFox and
Internet Explorer that will show you the true URL that the link
goes to - and it will almost always point to some place
unexpected.
Similarly, avoid any email that purports to need some sort of
assistance in moving funds from overseas and offering you a
share. These are known as Nigerian scams, or 419 scams, after
the section of the legal code of Nigeria they break. The money
never gets delivered, to anyone, and in a lot of cases, they'll
take your bank and routing number, having conned it out of you,
and use it to run up huge charges on credit slips drawn up in
your name, or clean out the account. In extreme cases, people
have booked airline tickets to do "in person verification of
prize winnings", and have been kidnapped or murdered! Just
remember the old adage "If it looks too good to be true, it
probably is..."
About the author:
Author and internet entrepreneur Bernard Pragides offers expert
advice and tips regarding identity theft. Learn more about
identity theft and fraud by visiting his blog at
http://www.identity4life-blog.com and his website
http://www.IdentityProtek.com for more helpful information.
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