Scamerican dream
Appendix. Hints
Don’t ever read spam
Never open email attachments before scanning them with an antivirus.
Don’t respond to job offers from companies you don’t know.
If you receive an email from your bank/PP/eBay etc. asking you to follow a link in order to, presumably, unblock your account or update your data, check the URL three times for good measure. Better yet, type in the address yourself and then find the necessary section in your online account settings. If you have any suspicions, best call the bank or email support.
Avoid shopping in online stores that look suspicious.
Get a separate plastic card for shopping online, and always top it up with just enough to make the payment.
Get your bank to send you SMS notifications of transactions.
Keep your eBay and PP passwords different.
Use fairly complex passwords.
Remember that 99% of work-at-home job offers are scam.
If you ignore point 10, ask your employer for a phone number, find out if their company is registered in BBB, use who.is to find out how long the website has been around; finally, before starting your job, look your employer up in yahoo or scam.com
Don’t believe strangers who make tempting offers over the phone or online.
Use license software only.
Spend a bit of your time on getting an antivirus and a firewall.
Constantly update, but only from official sources.
If you want to install software of uncertain origin, do so on a virtual machine first. The enemy won’t be able to escape the virtual machine.
Don’t allow strangers to install software on your PC.
Don’t trust nice strangers from social networking websites.
OFFLINE:
Try to withdraw cash from ATMs inside bank buildings only.
Before using an ATM examine it carefully and if anything raises suspicion, use a different ATM.
It’s better to have a separate card for travel.
When visiting third-world countries, pay for everything with cash.
I am confident that if every user sticks to at least half of the list, fraud will take heavy losses. Your security is in your hands.
