What are the warning signs of online scams and how to avoid them?
The era of internet has promoted the culture of acquiring the best deals and discounts online, which often exposes the customers to some malicious websites. Sometimes people unknowingly venture on malicious websites and end up sharing their sensitive details. This leads to the risk of falling prey to phishing attacks through spam e-mails and promotional messages.
In addition to this, online shopping scams are also on a rise nowadays. With a majority of people doing online shopping, clicking on some malicious websites becomes more common. Online shopping scams aren’t something new. This involves old school tricks, where some people pretend to be legitimate online sellers using fake accounts or websites on a genuine retailer site to trap customers.
Here are the warning signs of online scams:
1. The first warning sign of you falling into an online fraud is a scammer approaching you. In most cases, you never reach out to the scammer, instead, they try to brainwash you with a convincing story regarding why they are contacting you. This would involve using high-pressure sales tactics, computer or tax problems and urgency tricks to make you fall prey to their bait.
2. Scammers usually brainwash you or play with your emotions. They grab your weakest point and pull the right string to make you react. To ensure this, they enlist the imaginary potential win, possibility of love, or fear of falling to make you fall for the bait.
3. Scammers usually use professional and official-looking websites to fake it. They often use fake logos or branding of larger companies such as ATO, PayPal and more to make you question whether it’s real or fake.
4. Scammers often ask for money either in the beginning or after months of grooming.
Here are the important tips on safeguarding yourself from fraudsters:
1. Stay clear of unknown e-commerce websites. In addition to this, always double-check that you are dealing with a trusted website. which looks too good to be true.
2. While going through a website, pay special attention to the grammatical errors and poor language. Chances are more that the website is not run professionally or can be regarded as a fake website.
3. Always go through the review section of the shopping website or portal.
4. Never consider a company that asks for money during the hiring procedure.
5. Always look for an ‘s’ at the end of https:// or a URL that stands for secure.