Simple Steps to Defend Yourself Against Internet Fraud

By Britt Erica Tunick

Identity theft and online fraud are rampant, and cyber thieves are only getting more and more sophisticated in the tactics they use to access people’s bank accounts and personal information. From running charges on your credit cards, to opening accounts in your name that you don’t even know about, or even creating phony websites that appear to be legitimate, there are countless ways that criminals regularly target people both online and in person. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do to protect yourself and your assets.

Following are some steps you can take to defend yourself against online banking fraud:

• Never open emails from sources you do not recognize, and keep in mind that legitimate organizations will not ask for your pin number or passwords through emails.
• Do not click on hyperlinks in emails or download anything unless you recognize the sender and are able to first confirm with them that what you have received was sent by them.
• Be sure to install antivirus software and programs that can detect spyware on your computer and make sure that what you install is reputable, as free programs may not be as effective.
• Regularly change the passwords that you use.
• Make sure that the passwords you create have a minimum of eight characters that are made up of a combination of both lower case and upper case letters, special characters, and numbers.
• Do not utilize automatic login options that save your user name and passwords, as doing so means criminals can access tons of information about both your credit card information and your personal details if they are able to gain remote access to your computer.
• Take advantage of two-factor authentication for any website or app that offers it, since this would require criminals to not only know your passwords, but to also have access to your mobile phone in order to gain entry to your accounts.
• Regularly review your accounts and all the transactions on them to make sure that nobody has access to your information and that any charges or transactions were made by you.
• Never use account number or critical information such as your social security number when creating nicknames for accounts.
• Utilize bill pay whenever possible, instead of writing personal checks, to minimize the number of people who have access to your account information.
• Always make sure to log out of accounts once you have finished making a transaction –whether bank accounts or retail accounts such as Amazon.
• When using Wi-Fi, make sure to create a unique password that cannot be easily figured out by someone reading your social media accounts or public information on you, and never rely on the password provided by the factory.
• Make sure to deactivate the possibility for remote administration of your wireless hardware.