Today more and more people use their computers for pretty much everything - from communicating with friends and family to online shopping, investing and banking. This all makes life a lot easier, yet at the same time we open ourselves up to hackers, crackers and various scams.
Online Fraud
These days, stories of online fraud, identity theft and phishing scams appear on the news so often that many of us don't pay attention anymore. And that is a big mistake. The Association for Payment Clearing Services revealed that in 2007, banking losses due to online fraud totalled £22.6 million. And there were 20,682 reported phishing incidents in the UK in the first half of 2008 alone. Bear in mind that many people choose not to report the crime.
Bank officials urge their customers to be wary of online scams, such as suspicious emails claiming to be from the bank, and to use only a fully protected PC with regularly updated anti-virus software and enabled firewall. These measures are effective, but are not enough. There are dangers where caution and even a regularly updated anti-virus can't fight.
Auslogics BoostSpeed at http://www.auslogics.com/pcsecurity is not only a computer performance optimization suite, it also includes a number of very useful security applications. It offers advanced protection where anti-virus software can't help.
Track Eraser
Every time you visit a website or open a file, a record is created on your computer. If someone gets access to this information, they can find out a lot about you - your browsing preferences, which online stores you use, and maybe even something that can jeopardise your reputation or finances. Auslogics Track Eraser protects your privacy by removing all the tracks and history from your computer. Run it on a regular basis to not leave any sensitive information behind.
File Shredder and Disk Wiper
Another danger is deleted files. Simply deleting them doesn't make them go for good. They are only "forgotten" by your system, but in fact remain somewhere on your hard drive. It's quite easy to "undelete" them and for them to be used in ways you probably will not be happy to find out about. But if you delete a file, a folder or the Recycle Bin contents with File Shredder, you can be sure that they will be impossible to recover.
Auslogics Disk Wiper works in a very similar way. It also ensures that files cannot be recovered. While File Shredder deletes files and folders, Disk Wiper literally clean-wipes your hard disk free space. Deleting files and erasing traces of them in such a way makes it nearly impossible for hackers to get hold of any sensitive information that they can use to commit fraud or steal your identity.
PC Security
You may wonder how hackers can access your computer. Actually, it's easier than you think. Windows XP and newer versions include services that make it possible to access your computer remotely and bombard you with spam. Of course, these services were not designed for this purpose, but criminals find them pretty useful. These services are called Remote Registry and Messaging Service. Using Auslogics PC Security helps check whether your firewall is enabled, anti-virus is up to date and your system patched. But most importantly, it disables Remote Registry and Messaging Service, thus protecting you from possible attacks.
No one leaves their house with the front door left wide open. And nobody walks around with their bank account number printed on their T-shirt either. But when it comes to computer security, people are often too careless. The more attention you pay to computer security, the less chance you will be the next online fraud victim.
Download Auslogics BoostSpeed from http://www.auslogics.com/pcsecurity.
Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Internet Scams" article category.
People interested in the above article "Avoiding Online Fraud - Mission Possible!" are also interested in the related articles listed below:
How well would you trust a stranger with your most vital information? This is the question that most people fail to ask themselves before taking the plunge and passing on their personal information on any website that request it. In the ideal world people could post their information and make online purchases without having to worry too much about online credit card fraud. However with so many online e-stores wanting to sell to customers it is clear why such a trend of online credit card fraud can be a problem.
Malware is short for malicious software, or something that's designed to do harm. There are three kinds of malware - viruses, Trojans and worms. Worms are the most damaging kind of malware because only worms are automated and designed to spread very quickly across any network they infect.
E-mailing scamming might be the biggest online fraud of our time but that doesn't mean that there aren't people who fall for them. Instead of focusing on a specific scam I am giving you an overview of the best (or worst) so that that you can easily make an informed decision.
Are you afraid of trying to make money online because you do not want to get scammed by some unreliable opportunity? It's true, many people get scammed out of valuable money and time when trying to earn online. There is only a 5 per cent success rate amongst new internet entrepreneurs odds that are not in your favor. One of the main causes of failure is choosing an earn income online scam. Unless you find a real, reliable, workable internet income programs, you will obviously have a pretty hard time generating any real profits, or any profits at all for that matter.
In case you were still wondering how many people have heard of home staging, here's further proof that this is a well established field. It seems the scam artists are starting to crawl out from under their rocks to see if they can con home stagers into sending them money!
The problem is that for newcomers, it is rather hard to tell the differences between real internet business opportunities and flimsy ones. In fact, on the surface there may not be any obvious differences. That is why it is imperative that you take time to research opportunities before jumping in.
The numbers may seem grim for Web-based commerce. In 2004 in the Unites States alone, computer users logged in more than 207,000 Internet fraud reports to the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center. If you look hard at this number, you may be astounded, and a good bit frightened, by the implication. You may ask, "Is it really safe to buy and sell at an online site?"
