Online Fraud Protection and Security

A few days ago, I received an email with the subject telling me that my paypal account is suspended. Instead of reading the whole email and click on the links that usually come with this kind of emails, I head on to my paypal account instead and logged in. I was no longer surprised when my paypal account worked and all my paypal balances are still intact. The email, as I have suspected is a scam mail trying to phish me off with some of my account information and password.

This kind of scenario becomes more common these days as the number of scammers and phishers increase. Common sense will still help in avoiding instances that can result in losing money through online transactions. Aside from knowing and avoiding phishing emails such as the one that I have received, here are more ways to avoid online frauds:

Use your credit card cautiously. Online thieves who steal credit card numbers so they can use the credit card themselves exist. When purchasing online, for example, I make it a point to transact only in well known and legitimate sites and avoid giving away my card number to questionable sites that cannot even guarantee my online transaction with them is secure.

Update and do not just install an anti virus software. Here is my major pitfall, I have an anti virus installed in my computer but it is not always updated which makes me a potential target of people sending malwares and viruses that can scrape off important information stored in my PC.