Internet Fraud. Protect Yourself!

Internet Fraud comes in many different forms.

Everyone must have heard of the Nigerian Internet scam where someone poses as a high member of a foreign government and tries to defraud naive people via e-mail. Few people, however, realize the massive extent of Internet fraud.

It goes far beyond the scam e-mails that you see in your inbox every day, far beyond the Internet viruses that you are constantly warned about in the news. Unfortunately, fraud on the Internet is a multi billion dollar business.

Back in the old days, Internet hacking used to be something done by young men trying to prove their online abilities. They would hack into a system in a bid to show off to their friends. Although sometimes systems would crash doing this, in general they did very little damage. It was more of a game for them, and although it was a game that governments and businesses hated, the damage done to them was minimal. 

Today, Internet fraud  takes on many different forms. Nowadays, most people generally are smart enough not to get scammed over the e-mail, but nonetheless those same people get ripped off over eBay on a regular basis.

There are online auction scams, Internet dating scams, spoofing – you name it and someone has probably already ripped someone off with it. Sometimes, an Internet scam  means that you may lose a few thousand dollars. Generally, you can recover from something like this and get back on your feet. Sometimes, however, Internet fraud is much worse than this. People have their whole identity stolen over the Internet every day.

One of my friends had her identity stolen. She didn't have any kind of identity protection, and she wasn't using a secure, encrypted system. Basically, she did everything wrong in the way most of us do everything wrong. Like most people, she didn't worry about it until it was much too late. Because of that, she had thousands of dollars of property charged in her name. It ruined her credit and nearly bankrupted him into the bargain.

Although she eventually recovered from the Internet fraud, her experience should be a lesson to all of us. She was not even able to successfully sue the people who scammed her. They had top lawyers working for them, and unfortunately were able to cover their tracks too well. Basically, she had to eat some of the losses and get on with her life. If she had taken a few simple steps for some basic Internet fraud prevention, however, things would have been much different. It would've been a lot easier for her.

A top tip is "If things sound too good to be true, they probably are!" These people who commit internet fraud are generally looking for vulnerable people and also people who become complacent. With anything connected to the internet, always ensure you are well protected, use different passwords, and keep vigilant in every area.

Don't be another statistic of internet fraud!

FOR A BOOST IN MOTIVATION VISIT POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS