Don’t Be Fooled: 3 Cyber Security Tips to Prevent Crime

Don’t Be Fooled While You Cruise the Internet!

As we spend more time online, Cyber Security continues to be a threat to our security, our finances and even our personal well-being.

We can easily be fooled, and you don’t have to be a teenager of senior citizen to fall for online scams or phishing attempt. It can happen to anybody, at any time!

In today’s article, we will outline several of the most common ways criminals fool folks like you and me!

1 Social Media Business Imposters

One of the most common scams is imposters pretending to be someone they are not.

One example is when a well-known brand is running a giveaway or contest. An imposter duplicates this brand, even going as far as creating a landing page for the fake contest! Next, they start messaging the followers of the real brand, telling those followers that ‘they won’, and asking them to log in, or click a link.

Don’t fall for fake social media accounts! Don’t engage with them, click a link or give out your password.

Instead, take a good look at the account that’s messaging you:

• are they set to public? (if it’s set to private, it’s fake)
• do they have followers?
• What other content are they sharing?

When in doubt, don’t click! It’s fairly easy to spot a fake once you are on the lookout and you are aware!

2 Social Media Fake Accounts

There are also plenty of people pretending to be one thing and then really not being that person. There are bots and fake accounts all over the internet.

You can spot fake personal accounts by checking the date they joined that platform, who their friends are, and if their settings are set to the point you can’t find out anything about them. If that’s the case, most likely they are hiding something

The main purpose of fake social media accounts is to get close to you to try to influence your decisions and gain access to accounts and financial information, or to reach someone else who is in your circle of friends.

Make a rule not to friend anyone you don’t know or haven’t met in real life, or anyone who has just a few friends.

If someone you’ve just met starts messaging you and you don’t like it, block them and cut ties with that person or bot immediately.

3 Phishing Attempts

A phishing attempt looks like the following: an official-looking email comes to your inbox, stating that your bank, your Facebook, your credit card… need to be reverified. That they lost information. That you need to re-enter your password, or your social security number, or you need to log in. Never, ever, ever click on email like that.

Instead, go to the source on the internet. Go to your BROWSER and log in to your bank, your credit card account or Facebook to see if there are any messages or warnings there. If not, it was a phishing attempt!

4 Online Grooming

Be aware of  those with bad intentions. While someone might seems ok, it’s easy to create false accounts and pretend to be someone you are not.

If you have teenagers and elderly parents, talk to them about the signs of online grooming by experienced criminals to get control over you, your financials and your life. They might gain access to an important accounts,  eventually blackmailing you into giving them access to everything.

It might seem that this person loves you, but in reality they are just a criminal trying to take advantage of you.

Signs to look for when suspecting online grooming happening to you or a loved one:

• Send you lots of messages.
• Ask you to keep your conversations secret.
• Try to find out more.
• Start sending you sexual messages.
• Get you to share personal information.
• Try to blackmail you.

5 Account Hacking

Last but not least, secure all your accounts with 2 factor authentication aka 2FA.

It’s offered to prevent hacking. Online giants such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, banks and most other financial institutions urge you to use 2FA to prevent hacking.

Set up 2FA on all accounts. Use it. Encourage others in your household to do the same.

It can save you from losing your account, money and access to important account.

Questions or Concerns?

Strand Security is here to help you! If you are worried about your Wifi security, home security or cyber safety, come to us with your questions or concerns. We have years of experience and will be happy to answer any questions you have.