The online world is beautiful! It contains a lot of precious pieces of information that we can gain and improve our knowledge, career, and financial stability. But neglecting its negative side would be a huge mistake.
Cyber security is one of the main problems that we are all experiencing even today. Most payment providers and reputable platforms we visit every day are highly protected. But, sometimes, the loss of personal data can be the consequence of human error.
Because of that, we would like to highlight the 5 most common online scam methods that hackers use. That way, you will understand when and why you should pay more attention to certain details. Let’s go!
Phishing
Phishing is certainly the most common hacking method of all. You could potentially get an email or message on certain platforms where you should click on the link and enter certain personal information such as username, password, credit card, etc.
Spotting phishing messages, emails, and websites is easy. For starters, their grammar is usually poor. Apart from that, you will see the domain name of the website or email itself is strange. It will be grammatically incorrect or slightly different from the name of the original website.
Commonly used websites for this type of fraud are online casinos. Because of that, you carefully need to pick the gambling site and ensure it is reputable. For example, according to Ashraf Hamzah, legitimate and trustworthy gambling sites in Malaysia and other parts of the world will always have a license, collaborate with reputable software developing companies, etc. Put into consideration these factors.
Fake Antivirus Programs
This happens when you enter some website and suddenly a new window pops up where it says that you got infected. You will get recommendations for an antivirus program that could fix the issue.
However, download it only if you are sure the antivirus that is offered to you is legit and reputable. If you do not know a lot about it, neglect this message as you are certainly not infected!
Easy Profit
Do you want to become a millionaire for a couple of months? That’s impossible! Even billionaires of today needed 9 years on average to reach that goal!
The websites that use easy money-making solutions are usually cybercriminals. They will offer you to subscribe to a course or anything else, get your money and data, and disappear.
Spotting them is easy if you have one thing in mind – making money is a challenging process. Because of that, don’t dream about big sums of money that do not require hard work! Hackers are aware of the desire that people have and that’s why they simply love this method.
Online Store Scams
Online shopping is taking over traditional shopping. However, there are also stores online where you will give your money, but – get nothing. More precisely, you will lose a lot as the criminals will take your credit card credentials and use them instead of you. Some people discover this late, and they lose a lot of money.
This often happens when a real online store is hacked. However, they can also use the phishing method to trick you. For example, they will offer the same products, use the same design, and use almost identical domain names as the original store.
Apart from that, they would also try to offer you a discount like on the example we analyzed before. Spelling errors and suspicious prices are something you should pay attention to.
Fake Software Downloads
The software industry is a billion-dollar market and scammers can’t take their eyes off the users of thousands of software, especially those who are just starting to use and download a software. It’s easy to victimize users because scammers make it convenient to download software, mostly the paid ones.
Video downloaders are one of the most common targets of these scammers where they will offer the same software for free and inject malware on it and leverage advertisements and manipulate users to make money.
To avoid the same mistakes that others do, only trust reputable video downloaders that have verified reviews and make sure you are downloading the software from their real sites.
Final Thought
These are only the most common methods. Scammers and hackers are creative people, and they will always find a way to trick someone. Generally speaking, our message to you is to carefully read every email, message, or website content that you see.
Double-check everything before you submit your personal data and use additional layers of protection whenever that’s possible. Stay safe!
