Internet Security: What Not to Do

Nine easy don’ts will help protect your money, your computer and your privacy.

The numbers are hard to ignore: Internet fraud complaints in the United States jumped 33 percent last year, to a record 275,000 cases. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported $265 million lost to everything from credit card fraud to non-delivery of purchased goods. The average loss: $931.

It’s a modern-day dilemma. Thanks to its convenience, speed and widespread use, most of us can’t live without the Internet. So how do we protect ourselves?

Don’t provide personal or financial information when shopping, banking or doing business online

— unless the website you’re dealing with starts with https or has a padlock or unbroken key in the lower right corner of the status bar.

The ‘s’ in https stands for secure. This and the padlock or key symbols mean the information you share with this website is being encrypted, making it unreadable to outsiders. This is critical when you send personal and financial information via the Internet.

As a further precaution, you can double-click the padlock or key to make sure the name on the security certificate matches the company name in the address bar.

Remember, many times the https, padlock or key will not appear in the address bar until you reach the step in your online process where information needs to be encrypted.

Don’t reply to an e-mail request for personal information. If there’s a link in the e-mail, don’t click on it.

If you know the company and have dealt with it, look up the number in your own files or in the phone book and call the business directly to verify. Don’t rely on contact info provided in the e-mail.

Phishers use e-mails and websites that often look surprisingly legitimate to get people to reveal personal and financial information like Social Security numbers and account numbers, which they use to access people’s money.

Don’t buy online from a seller with no physical address or working phone number.

Call the number first. Make sure about refund policies and delivery dates. The law requires sellers to ship items within 30 days of the order if no date is specified. Don’t pay with cash, personal checks or money orders.

The majority of complaints about online fraud in America result from non-delivery of goods.

When choosing passwords, don’t use dead giveaways like your name, birthday, children’s names or locations.

The stronger your password, the better your protection against hackers and thieves. Passwords should have at least eight characters and combine letters, numbers and symbols.

Don’t use the same password for all your accounts.

Keep a list of your passwords in a safe, secret place away from your computer.

Don’t open e-mail attachments if you don’t know the sender, aren’t expecting an attachment or see nothing to explain it in the text.

Viruses hide in attachments and links. Often the e-mails have intriguing subject lines, like “Per your request” or “Fwd: TOO FUNNY.”

When you send attachments to others, writing something in the e-mail instead of leaving it blank will help it stay out of your friends’ spam boxes.

Don’t ignore misspellings and grammatical errors.

These are often an easy way to identify less-than-legitimate e-mails and websites. Think of the letters and materials you get in the mail from your bank, credit card company, major retailers and the government. If an e-mail soliciting something from you isn’t professional and polished, it could be the work of a scammer.

Don’t open junk e-mail, and don’t reply to spam.

Doing either will alert the spammer that your e-mail address is good. It could result in even more spam in your inbox. Don’t even reply to try to remove yourself from their subscriber list. Just delete spam, or look into a spam filter.

Don’t forward chain e-mail messages.

You’ll never know who’ll see your e-mail address down the line. Worse, you might be forwarding a hoax, or even a virus.