Many of us have had that eerie feeling after submitting our credit card or debit card information online. The feeling that asks, “Did I just give my card number to reputable people?”
You can take some steps to assuage those feelings and have more confidence when making online transactions with your favorite store, bank or investment company. The OnGuard Online Web site offers seven main tips on how to protect yourself while online. The site offers educational materials and links to file complaints about online scams.
The tips:
“Protect your personal information. It’s valuable.” Identity thieves will attempt to disguise themselves as a popular Web site to get personal information that they can use to establish credit accounts in your name, creating a mountain of legal and other problems for you to sort through. Familiarize yourself with the Web sites you use most often and don’t enter personal information on a site you don’t recognize. If you think you are the victim of identity theft, you can visit the Federal Trade Commission Web site to learn what steps you should take.
- “Know who you’re dealing with.” Emails or pop-ups that claim to be from your Internet service provider, a government agency or your bank asking you to “update” or “validate” your personal information may be from “phishers” who are trying to steal your identity. Contact the company directly (by phone) if you have any questions about the legitimacy of any request to update your account information.
- “Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as a firewall, and update them all regularly.” Most programs offer you the chance to automatically download updates to their programs, which is a smart way to stay on top of the ever-changing virus and spyware landscape.
- “Be sure to set up your operating system and Web browser software properly and update them regularly.” Similarly, updates to popular Web browsers like Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, can be downloaded automatically.
- “Protect your passwords.” Make sure you use a combination of numbers, capital and lower-cased letters, and “special” characters (if allowed).
- “Back up important files.” No matter how many precautions you take, computers may still crash, and important information lost.
- “Learn who to contact if something goes wrong online.” If you think you’ve been the victim of Internet fraud, contact the Federal Trade Commission online, or contact its local office.
Implementing these simple steps can allow you to take advantage of the Internet’s speed, accessibility and convenience while minimizing the risks that you can face online.