With Black Friday, the biggest retail day of the year, and the festive season approaching, online shopping activity can become the gateway for fraudsters to take advantage of customers unknowingly.
Use this fraud prevention checklist to protect yourself against fraudulent online activity over the next few months. From creating strong passwords to not using public WiFi, here are some things that you can do today that will protect you this season.
1. Create strong passwords
Creating a strong password for any and all of your online activity can often be one of the strongest defenses against a fraudster. When creating a strong password, here are some tips to consider:
- Make your password long and complicated. Try to use between 8 and 10 characters, and alternate between numbers, capital letters and special characters. The longer and more complicated your password is, the more difficult it is to figure out.
- Create a unique password. Don’t use a password that is common, like ‘12345’ or ‘password’. Rather go for a password that will be completely unique to you.
- Where possible, use two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security.
Don’t use the same password for every site. Rather have different, but strong, passwords for the different sites you have an account on. Use a password manager tool likeLastPassto keep track of your passwords.
2. Don’t provide your password, PIN number or bank account number over the phone, via SMS or email
Financial institutions andcredit providerswill never ask you for this information over the phone, via SMS or email. If you are contacted in any of the above ways for this information, it should raise red flags that a fraudster is potentially contacting you.
As a fraud prevention measure, download theTruecallerapp to help you identify calls from numbers you don’t know or block any spam or fraudulent numbers.
3. Get notifications for online transactions
Most, if not all, of the time, you will receive a notification or alert when you are about to complete an online purchase. WithFASTACard, for example, you will get a real-time OTP sent to you via SMS when making purchases with certain online retailers. This is an added security measure for you to approve the purchases that you make. If you receive a notification for a purchase that is unfamiliar to you, do not authorise the transaction. This could be a fraudster attempting to purchase items using your card details but cannot proceed without your approval. Turn those notifications on to prevent this!
4. Only browse websites that are secure
If you’reshopping onlinevia Google (i.e. not through a downloaded app), make sure that the URL of the website has a closed lock icon next to it, and that “https” appears in the browser address bar. This indicates that the site is safe and secure to shop on, and you willavoid falling for any online shopping scams.
5. Don’t use public or shared WiFi
Unsecured or public WiFi servers are one of the easiest ways for fraudsters to getpersonal or financialinformation from you. These types of WiFi servers don’t ask you to enter a password to access it, and so without this security measure, you become vulnerable to fraudsters if you log into your internet banking or access online accounts using these WiFi servers. Rather wait until you are home, using your own secure network, to accesspersonal or financialinformation.
Fraud Prevention Checklist
- Do I have a strong, unique password for my online accounts?
- Have I downloaded Truecaller to identify spam calls?
- Have I turned on notifications for online transactions?
- Am I browsing safe and secure websites?
- Have I turned off access to public and shared WiFi servers?
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