Wazzup Pilipinas!
Activities shopping online continues to increase from year to year. We are so often spoiled with a wide variety of goods ranging from clothing appliances to household appliances and to food appliances, where all of it can now be delivered to our doorsteps through online transactions.
We have to be aware that online transactions are not entirely safe. Through a survey from iprice Group, among the 26 countries in the world, Philippines is the country with the most victims of online fraud. Up to a total of 26% of online consumers have lost money due to fraud in cyberspace.
Fraud stories such as goods which never arrived, illicit payments via credit cards to the loss of thousands and millions of pesos could happen if we are not careful in the deals online as well as protecting ourselves from cyberhackers.
Here are 5 tips that you can do to avoid scams online:
1. Safe Shopping Site
Try to shop on the sites with the address ‘https: //’ instead of ‘http: //’. The letter “s” means that sites are using a secured server and will protect your personal information from hackers.
According to David Chmelař, CEO of iprice Group, you can pay attention to the reviews from previous customers, and ask a friend or colleague who has experience of shopping onine to ensure your destination site is a trusted website.
2. Save Transaction Evidence
Proof of electronic payment such as the confirmation email, SMS, and others can help to record and track the history of your transaction. They can also be used as strong evidence if there is a dispute with the seller in the future.
3. Protect Your Credit Card
Hackers to your credit card can be prevented and stopped as soon as possible after the transaction has taken place. Here are some ways to protect your credit card:
• Set SMS notifications on a credit card, so you get news of any transactions done. If there is a suspicious transaction, you may contact the bank’s Customer Service to ask for confirmation and blocking transactions which leads to any hacking indications.
• Use One-Time Password (OTP), which is the password that will be sent to a personal moblie phone after an online transaction. OTP provides a layer of security to your credit card.
• Limit the number of transactions on your credit card so that transactions cannot be processed when it reaches a certain threshold.
• Check your credit card statement. There is a transaction which you did not make but is listed in the monthly report? If yes, then contact your Customer Service immediately.
4. Avoid Using Wifi Internet when Accessing Personal Activity
While doing online shopping or bank transactions, avoid using free Wifi because if may well open opportunities for other people to access your private data.
5. Use Smart and Powerful Password
It is important to have a password that is strong because the password associated with yourself like your birthday, can be easily guessed by the people who know you or the hackers. Hackers generally guess and match your personal records word by word and letter by letter. Make sure you use numbers, symbols, uppercase and lowercase letters.
Contributed by
Davin Chuah
An alumni of Taylor’s University and is passionate in writing about lifestyle, tech and travelling related pieces. He believes in communicating experiences and feelings through writing.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
