How to browse the Internet safely

There are precaution steps you can take every time you go online that will help you avoid scams, phishing and online identity theft.

Just follow the simple rules outlined below to vastly improve the protection of your personal information while surfing the Web:

1. Never give out your full name, address, date of birth or phone number to any Website that you don't trust. Some websites are designed solely to collect this kind of information only to forward it to criminals who will use it for their unlawful purposes.
    
2. Watch who you chat with. Never trust someone you don't know or who's not on your buddy list who claims to be your (old) friend.
    
3. Never provide your bank account information or credit card number unless you are shopping with an established online retailer that you know is safe. There are numerous fake websites out there that pretend to be online shops, but their sole purpose is to steal credit card numbers.
    
4. When shopping online, always double-check the SSL certificate of the retailer. Compare certificate details with the actual address information of the retailer. If data doesn't match, leave the website immediately.
    
5. Never open emails from unknown senders and especially never click any link contained in such messages.
    
6. Beware of spoof email. Spammers and cybercriminals are always seeking to steal your personal information and they will keep sending you emails claiming to be from Amazon, Ebay, PayPal or an established bank. These messages often contain a request to visit a website in order to confirm your email address or to unblock your account that has been suspended for some reason. Do not even think about clicking that link. Large institutions never require you to unblock or confirm your account sending you unsolicited emails. If you receive one of these, be sure this is scam and if you visit the link your password and login will be stolen. This type of online crime is called phishing (Learn more about phishing of watch the video below).

    

7. If you meet new people online and wish to meet them in person, always arrange a meeting in a public place and let your family and friends know your plans. Always have an "escape plan" if something goes wrong.
    
8. Make sure you've got a solid anti-virus solution installed on your PC. We can't stress enough how important it is for online safety to use an antivirus. Modern antivirus programmes often protect you from more than just one type of online threat. For example, Norton Internet Security includes antivirus, antispyware, anti-worm, anti-trojan, anti-bot and advanced firewall. On top of that, it also delivers protection from phishing, scam emails and online identity theft.
    
9. Before signing up to any website, read their terms and conditions. There are thousands of thousands websites out there designed to harvest email addresses of the unaware. You might be thinking you are signing up for a cool online service, but you may end up receiving hundreds of spam emails every day if you give your address to the wrong people.

   Avoid subscribing to newsletters on websites that don't explicitly say, you can unsubscribe at any time. They will be spamming your mailbox and you can't do anything about it. Also, opt out of any programmes, where your data is shared with other companies.
    

10. Use parental control tools to monitor what your children do online.
     
11. Change your passwords to online banking account every month. Use complicated passwords that are hard to guess. Never use bare words, dates of birth or your children's names as passwords. Such passwords are very easy to guess and somebody will crack them very soon. Ideally, you will use a password containing upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters such as dashes or underscores. For example, something similar to this:  Je74_Xaq354_^ is a strong password that is very hard to crack.
     
12. Never use your password in more than one online service. People tend to use exactly the same password for their online banking, email and community sites. This is wrong, because if someone hijacks your email password, they will be able to login to all services you are using.
     
13. If you are using instant messaging applications such as MSN, AIM or similar, make sure that receiving messages from unknown senders is blocked. Spammers use advanced techniques to send scam messages over instant messaging programmes and it's a good idea to block them all out before they hit your mailbox.
     
14. Have a phoney email account at hand. You can use it when subscribing to dubious services or when unsure if a website is safe.

Please bear in mind, that Internet crime, spam and phishing is a growing problem of the online community nowadays. To avoid being scammed, always use common sense and act cautiously when giving your personal details.

We hope these simple techniques will keep your online experience safe and enjoyable.