News
Experts reveal how to avoid scammers online
Time after time we hear about the latest highly-sophisticated cyber scams, and some of them are now so realistic, it’s hard to tell a scam from the real thing. Everything from our banks to our energy bills are being targeted – not even PayPal is safe.
As a matter of fact, in 2016, Aussies lost over $300 million to scams – up 31 per cent from the previous year.
With so many popping up all the time, you might be wondering what you can do to protect yourself online. Thankfully, we’ve got some clever advice to help you stay safe, thanks to Leonie Smith, the Cyber Safety Lady. Speaking to news.com.au, here are her top tips for avoiding scams.
- Check your settings – Every few months, you should reassess your privacy and security settings on every social media platform you use. For Facebook, this simply means navigating to “Settings” and then to “Security and login”. From there, you’ll be able to see where your account is logged in and ramp up your authentication methods. Then, you can go into “Privacy” and adjust the settings so only your nearest and dearest can see your information, what you post or your activity.
- Keep personal details private – When signing up to new websites, never give all of your personal details (e.g. birth date, phone number, address), as this information is like gold to scammers. Simply use a fake birth date and avoid entering your contact details unless you know you can trust the company or website.
- Stop clicking – If you receive a website link in an SMS or email from an unrecognised sender, do not click it. You never know where the link might take you. If you ever receive an email purporting to be from your bank or any social media account, which asks you to update your details, do not click the link. Instead, go to the website how you normally would and deal with the issue that way.
- Banish spam – Constantly being sent spam emails? Your contact details may have been made public by hackers. A quick Google search of your email address or phone number will show you if they’ve been written up online. Otherwise, you can enter your email into this hacking detector which will tell you if any of your online accounts have been breached by hackers.