THE GUIDE TO AVOIDING ONLINE SCAMS IN 5 POINTS

We live in an ages where online scams are the order of the day. When it is talked about in the main news sites, the reader often dismisses the question with a classic " but who falls for it ?". While remaining a legitimate question for users who have a certain familiarity with the world of the Web, this nonchalance with which the topic is dealt with does not take into account a rather important factor: the human being. Yes, it is true that most scams can be avoided by arming yourself with patience, inquiring and using a little common sense, but it is equally true that we all have moments of inattention , taken by our thousands of daily activities. One of the factors that scammers focus on most is haste. "Click here, courage you wait, you only have a few minutes lifebloombeauty . "

Before falling back into the usual clichés, such as the opinionated" they deserve it ", take a second to reflect and maybe take a look at the research conducted by Lloyds Bank , according to the which the user group ranging from 18 to 34 years is increasingly the victim of these scams. So let's see what are the aspect that we must always strive to keep in mind when surfing the Web to avoid unpleasant surprises futuretechexpert.

Always do a check

It may seems like the most mundane advice in the world, but it is also the one most often people forget to implement. Whenever you become aware of a particularly tempting offer or something similar, it is always good to do a simple online search . Just enter, for example, the content of the message / e-mail received or some keywords useful to find information (eg "offer 3 euro telephone operator"). The web is so vast nowadays that many times you can even find articles related to that singular scam, just in case it is. Obviously, we can only trust if the news are reported by reliable information sites and not paperinoxyz.org naturalbeautytrends.

In case you are still not 100% sure after having carried out this first check, it is good to lose a few minutes and contact the company involved directly, through the official channels . To give you a concrete example, one of the most widespread online scams aims to obtain users' banking credentials via SMS or scam e-mailtechsmartinfo.

By clicking on a link contained in these messages, the person is redirected to a website that in many ways resembles the real one of the bank, but which is actually only meant to steal username, password and all the relevant codes.

Often the bad guys claim that there has been an "urgent problem" and then rush the user, trying to get his credentials. Assuming that a bank does not ask for this type of data, in this case it is always good to call your trusted branch or the official numbers and ask for explanations. Better to lose a few minutes than to be scammed. The secret in these cases is always calm. Same thing goes for amazing gifts or discounts - if the price is too low to be true, it most likely isn't.

Don't even trust a "strange" message received from someone you know , as it could be malware. For example, the New Year's virus recently circulated on WhatsApp , which used the number of people to send messages containing a malicious link without the people concerned even knowing it. By pressing on the link, the attackers were able to install malware inside the smartphone smarttechpros.

In short, always be wary and maybe try to make a call to whoever sent you the message before opening the link. Pay the same attention to e-mail attachments, since even the latter can lead to unpleasant inconveniences.

The golden rules for e-commerce disseminated by the Postal Police

 

Another field in which scams are becoming more and more numerous is that of e-commerce, or online commerce. For this reason, the Postal Police has disclosed its advice to avoid unpleasant inconveniences . First you need to use complete and up-to-date software and browsers and buy only from sites that have the same references as a real shop (check if there is a VAT number, landline phone number and the classic data to contact the company, those who sell online do not must have nothing to hide).

It is then necessary to read comments and feedback about the seller, use the official applications for smartphones and tablets (this device allows you not to be "redirected" to fraudulent sites), prefer payments via rechargeable credit cards (always paying attention to which data disclosed) and pay attention to psychological mechanisms such as urgency or obtaining a personal advantage ( smishing and phishing techniques ). Also pay attention to the structure of an ad (perhaps check that the photos entered have not already been published online using Google's reverse image search tool ) and be wary of ridiculous prices (too profitable business).

Finally, one of the most important advice given by the Postal Police is to "not trust": it is always good to be wary of those who propose "alternative payment methods", such as the widespread scam linked to the "PostePay top-up" (in which the bad guys ask the victim to go to top up a card and then disappear with the money or claim they can pay the seller through the PostaMat counter ), or by those who are in too much of a hurry to conclude a transaction. Remember that there are unfortunately many unscrupulous people online.

Learn to recognize banner ads

One of the scams that is gaining traction in Italy in the last period is that relating to advertising banners. We have reported it numerous times on these pages, but at the moment its diffusion has not stopped yet. For example, we recently discovered that fake advertising banners have started appearing within the official YouTube application as well .

The most used method is the following: we exploit, obviously without consent, names of VIPs that are known a little by everyone and pretend that these characters have declared that an investment in some "project", for example in "Bitcoin Future" , be able to make a lot of money.

To give you a concrete example regarding the most "used" names in Italy, advertising banners are often seen citing false statements by Jovanotti, Diletta Leotta, Flavio Briatore, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, but the bad guys could invent stories about any VIP.

Obviously these famous people know nothing and are trying in every way to tell people to stay away from these scams. In this regards, we advise you to read this Striscia la Notizia service in which Jovanotti explains the problem .

To make the "news" more credible, the bad guys often artfully create fake newspaper articles (sometimes even using, always without consent, the name of famous information portals and "recreating" the structure of the official websites) and screenshots ostensibly from popular television broadcasts.

If you're wondering where these banners can appear, the answer is essentially everywhere. In fact, it seems that these attackers have managed to circumvent Google's controls by passing the ads through the AdSense circuit, which is the one used by almost all websites. It is therefore good to understand that in most cases the advertising banners do not have nothing to do with the sites in which they are displayed, since it is Google that decides, based on the interests of users, which advertisements to show.

This means that even if the banner appears on the official website of one of the most famous news portals, you don't have to trust the same.. In fact, the bad guys may have managed to bypass Google's systems and therefore direct you to a bogus site, which may even look like the official one. So how do you recognize a news actually published by an advertising banner? Well, all ads on the AdSense circuit have a blue icon of an arrow and an 'X' at the top right. On platforms like YouTube, however, there is a yellow "Announcement" just below the banner. Also pay attention to social networks, always try to distinguish advertising from other content. In short, if you find a particularly "strange" piece of news in a similar box, don't trust it.

We don't know how long it will take to stop these scams, but it seems that the bad guys are concocting more and more cutting-edge methods. In fact, the first reports begin to arrive regarding the use of deep fake videos , or multimedia contents that exploit artificial intelligence to change the face of a character in a realistic way and make him say essentially what you want.

The URL bar, this unknown

It sounds unbelievable, but many scams can be avoided simply by taking a look at the URL bar . In fact, many bad guys don't have the tools to "take over" an official website. This means that they have to resort to other means and it is precisely here that the user can manage to defend himself effectively.

Let's take, for example, the scam mentioned above, namely that of VIPs who seem to make an investment in Bitcoin Future. Well, we have seen that the bad guys have managed to set up particularly sophisticated methods. Yet, simply by looking at the URL bar (the one at the top of all browsers, where there is the address of the website you are browsing), you often notice immediately that something is wrong: the name of the portal where the "news" is published is very strange (eg nvgod) and does not correspond to what is described in the article.

Sometimes, scammers also try to "fool the brain" by changing only a few letters, so we recommend that you re-read the address several times. It should also be noted that this measure may not be enough on its own and that it is always good to check everything calmly.

Stay up to date and make the necessary reports

If you want to stay up to date on the latest scams , as well as obviously inviting you to follow our information sheet dedicated to cyber security , we also recommend that you keep the Facebook page "Una vita da social" monitored , where the Postal Police reports some of the most relevant problems in this regard. sense. As for the reports, it is good to consult the official website of the Postal Police and use the appropriate tools, as well as, in the case of advertising banners, take advantage of the appropriate measures to make them disappear from your device and report them to the companies involved ( here we have explained how to do it for Google AdSense , while here you will find directions for YouTube). If you want to know more about the subject, we also recommend that you take a look at our in-depth analysis on why mobile scams still work and how to defend yourself .

  

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