How to Avoid Being Scammed on the Internet
In the digital age, you’d think that online shopping would be easier. But in reality, the ease of online shopping has also made us vulnerable to online scams. From sites that take your money and never send you a product to the dreaded knock-off that looks nothing like what was shown in the picture, you don’t want to fall victim to one of these hoaxes.
To fully understand how to avoid the problem, you first need to know what’s happening.
The most common online scams
While there are plenty of ways you can be scammed online, we’re going to focus on a few key ones.
Information-stealing sites
Whether it’s a product sale, for an “introductory call,” or a promise to help reduce your credit score, some websites exist solely to steal your information. And it doesn’t always have to be credit card numbers. Some sites prey on uninformed web users to try and steal your addresses, social security numbers, birthdate, and more.
Untrustworthy downloads
While content downloads are common on the internet, some are safer than others. Websites will include “free downloads” that are actually designed to install spyware on your computer.
Fake online companies
Fake online companies promise to sell you a product or service when in reality they have nothing to provide you. After taking your credit card number, they promise to follow up with your purchase information, but after weeks you never receive anything.
For fake retail companies, they often prey on clueless shoppers via social media advertising. They sell products through ads, usually offering a temporary sale, and give the impression that in 2–3 weeks your order will be shipped.
After 2–3 weeks you never receive shipment notification and after two months your product never arrives.
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Products that don’t match up
You’ve probably seen a headline around prom season of a girl who ordered a dress online only to receive an abysmal, low-quality attempt at recreating someone else’s product. These companies pretend to sell one product, but in a bait and switch approach send you something that barely resembles what you thought you were purchasing.
Fake and misleading reviews
While this tends to overlap with fake companies and products that don’t match up, fake reviews can manifest in a lot of problems. Companies can purchase fake reviews for products or services that give the perception that you’re purchasing a high-quality item, but in reality, you’re purchasing something completely different. This is an especially common practice on Amazon, where reviews play a large factor in product rankings, though it can happen on other sites as well. In some cases, a fake review may be displayed under the guise of a testimonial.
How to avoid it
While there are a lot of scams on the internet, there are ways to avoid them. Here are simple tips to help:
Install anti-spyware on your device
Anti-spyware software is designed to help protect you from malicious attacks on your personal information. They work by scanning your systems to identify any malicious software and, in most cases, help remove the spyware.
While there are multiple free and paid anti-spyware software available, one great option is SUPERAntiSpyware.
Never download content from an unknown site
If you haven’t heard of a website, don’t start clicking every “download now” button you see. Instead, make sure you’re visiting reliable websites, vetting the content they’re offering, and ensuring that the button you’re clicking to download is the correct button (sometimes sites will hide fake download buttons above the one for the real download).
Don’t give out excessive information to unknown sites
If a site is asking for more information than is reasonable, then they’re likely up to something. For example, to set up an introductory sales call you shouldn’t have to provide your credit card number or a home address and a company that claims to be able to help lower your credit score shouldn’t be asking for your social security number before you’re signing up for their services.
If you feel like you’re being asked to overshare your personal information, research the website and see if you can learn more to either verify the company is legitimate or confirm your suspicions.
Consult others online
The best way to ensure a company is legitimate or a website is safe is to consult others who have purchased a product or service from them. But, it’s not always as easy as reading a Facebook comment on an ad.
It’s not uncommon for reviews on websites or social media posts to be skewed. From companies purchasing or incentivizing positive reviews to increase their image, or competitors writing fake reviews to try and tarnish it, it can be hard to trust what’s written on their own channels.
That’s why it’s important to use an unbiased, third-party that allows you to engage with others directly. With the Google Chrome Extension, Zeeker, you can easily open a discussion window on any url and engage with users as you browse the web. That means you can ask for honest reviews on retail product pages, question others on if a download was safe, or discuss whether or not a website is overreaching in their ask for your personal information.
By chatting organically with other website visitors, you can learn enough to help avoid an internet scam.
While there’s no guaranteed way to ensure your protection from these internet scams, being aware and knowing the steps to take to avoid them can help.
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