We live in the age of technology and I’m sure anyone would say the same. Because of technology, most consumers have a great source of income. On the other side of the coin however, because of technology, the world now has cyber criminals. That’s right, the world of internet scams and fraud is not just a fairy tale. Unfortunately, cyber criminals steal $450,000,000.00 each year! So with internet fraud running rampant, how do you protect yourself against cyber criminals?
I’ve written most articles on this topic and covered the simplicity of ensuring you are on a secure server and phishing but are these really the only ways that cyber criminals steal from people? The easy answer is no! There are always new technologies that criminals will utilize to steal money from hard working consumers. However, phishing and non-secure web pages are some of the most common types.
Today however, we are going to talk a little bit about viruses and hackers! Consumers who own computers these days all know what an anti virus is. Well there is good reason for this. The reason is because viruses don’t only make your computer run slow or fail. They can also steal personal financial information right from your computer and send it all to the person that created the virus. This is the real danger when it comes to viruses.
Think about it, Americans tend to store their whole life on one computer. That computer will have credit card numbers, bank account information, social security numbers, addresses, contacts, employment information, etc… all of which is very profitable information to a cyber criminal! What would you do if someone got their hands on all of this information and your accounts all locked up and went negative, you lost your job due to the issues it has caused and your credit is destroyed. This is a reality for quite a bit of consumers. With that said, your first line of defense against cyber criminals is a good anti-virus!
Another common way that consumers become victims of cyber criminals is through email and other account hacking. Most Americans will use the same password for their facebook account as they do for their banking account and other important log ins. This is a huge mistake. This is because hackers will generally attack one account and utilize that accounts passwords to get into other accounts. So how do Americans protect themselves against being compromised due to password hackers? Well, this is simple, use different passwords for everything and change your passwords monthly. This will always keep the hackers at bay!
This article is brought to you by American Consumer Advocates! American Consumer Advocates specializes in fraud prevention and fraud loss recovery. If you were a victim of online scams, it’s time to give American Consumer Advocates a call and reclaim what is rightfully yours!
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- Hit By the Epsilon Security Breach? Here’s How to Protect Your Personal Information
- Protecting Yourself From Cyber Credit Card Crimes
- Three Lessons from WikiLeaks: How the Internet is Changing Information Warfare
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