Know How to Spot (and Avoid!) Danger Online!

Unfortunately, while the Internet has brought up incredible new opportunities for communications, shopping, education, and entertainment, it’s also proven a rich ground for people who cheat and want to take advantage.

Some of these points may sound simple, but you’d be amazed at how many people are cheated:

1. When you’re accessing any website where you’ll be providing any of you’re financial information, made sure the address starts with https instead of the regular http. This indicates the server is secure and it is safe for you to enter your private information.

2. Never send Western Union Transfers unless you know and trust the company you’re doing business with PayPal is best, with their Buyer Protection. Visit PayPal, click Help, and type “Buyer Protection” for details. 2. eBay’s Security Center also has a great deal of helpful information, including the eBay Toolbar that will tell you if you are not on an official eBay or PayPal website. Given the amount of fraud associated with PayPal in particular, the toolbar is very useful! (Note: Official PayPal emails will always begin “Dear [your full name].” When in doubt, log in to PayPal, making sure the URL begins with https, and ask whether the email was legitimate.)

3. Information on Phishing (getting you to enter your personal data thinking it’s legitimate when it’s not) is at the AWPG

4. The US Federal Trade Commission also has information about Phishing at

5. On the other side, Many times, emails that may look like viruses or scams are not real. There are a few great Websites that talk about these Urban Legends - you can look up the possible virus or scan and see whether they are real. The most famous is Urban Legends, and there’s Hoaxbusters, Scambusters.

6. Symantec also has a Hoax page to help you know to be scared of and what’s not

7. LifeLock is a company that specializes in preventing Identity Theft. Click Here to protect your Identity and Save 10% with LifeLock - the only company that prevents identity theft! [LIFELOCK BANNER?]

Unfortunately, some people either don’t know the warning signals or are scammed despite their best efforts (online con artists are getting smarter and smoother). If it does happen to you or someone you know - even if you think you’ve been defrauded (don’t wait for proof!) - there are a few things you can do:

1. If you do think you’ve been defrauded, visit The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). You can file a complaint right there on their Website.

2. The National Fraud Information Center (http://www.fraud.org/welcome.htm) has great information and applications to file complaints on their Website as well.

3. We can’t stress this enough! When you see https (that’s with an “s” at the end) at the beginning of a web address that means it’s a secure Website. Any ecommerce or financial Website should have https at the beginning. If it doesn’t, be suspicious! You should NEVER divulge your personal financial information to an unsecured Website!!! NEVER. Sometimes, the homepage addresses of Websites may not include the https, but any pages inside the Websites asking you for sensitive information always should.

The good news (and even when there’s bad news, we’re all about looking on the bright side) is that there are some really great security programs out there, and we strongly (strongly strongly!) suggest you buy and install at least one of the programs below. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of protecting your computer. [And if you're on a PC, skip the next paragraph and jump right to the programs].

Note to Mac users: Macs have long been considered safe from viruses and worms and all those icky things that cause the blue screen of death on PCs. While you still may have the less-susceptible OS, there are some viruses now attacking Macs. There are only a tiny handful of Mac antivirus programs. Go to Macupdate and search under “antivirus” to find the latest ones.

Here are a few helpful websites and programs to help with your online and home security:

Protect your PC from viruses with the Shield Antivirus from PCSecurity

Protect your PC from viruses with the Shield Antivirus from PCSecurity

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