Five easy tips for avoiding online scams

The vast majority of scams require you to do something, like clicking something or giving away your personal information. Unfortunately, lots of those scams are designed to target students, especially international students.

It might not be possible to come up with guaranteed ways to avoid online scams, however, there are a few easy things you can do to help avoid getting caught out.

1. Think about where you are

Think about it — if you’re out and about on a big night, or stuck on a packed bus, do you need to start going through your bank account right there and then?

I bet most of you are yelling “No” at your screen about now. OK, that’s an obvious one. But what about your socials? Or your email?

Be careful of being in a situation where people might be able to look over your shoulder and see what’s on your phone — or overhear both sides of a conversation you’re having. If you’re giving away personal information like your address, your mother's maiden name and the street you grew up on, maybe it’s better to wait until you’re back at home. Scammers can use some of that information in the future as part of a phishing scheme.

Um, what’s a phishing scheme?

According to the National Cyber Security Centre, ‘Phishing’ is when criminals use scam emails, text messages or phone calls to trick their victims. The aim is often to make you visit a website, which may download a virus onto your computer, or steal bank details or other personal information.

Speaking of which…

2. Use a secure password

Yes — we know that you know this, but it’s still worth mentioning.

If your password is something like your dog’s name and your year of birth, and you spend an age on that packed bus posting about said dog and how your birthday’s coming up, you might make yourself a bit of a target for anyone looking to steal your information.

We’ve got some tips on creating a strong password if you need them, but here’s the short version:

• Try using two unrelated words joined together with numbers replacing some letters;
• Or using the first letter of each word in a memorable phrase, song title, or lyric;
• Or you could skip certain letters in a phrase or word combination;

Again, we know this is obvious, but never use the same password for multiple accounts. If you do that they only need to get your password right once to be able to access everything.

While you’re at it though, make sure you’re setting up multi-factor authentication on as many of your accounts as possible (like how you have Duo on your University account). It can be a huge help when keeping your accounts safe. We know Duo can be a bit of a headache, but a small bit of protection now will definitely pay off in the long run.

3. Check what people can find out about you on public websites

Have you Googled your name recently? It’s worth a try just to see if anything unexpected pops up that you really need to delete or put behind an account of some kind.

It’s also a handy one for if you’re applying for a job. Employers really do a background check on your social media presence. Winning an award for volunteering for your society looks great to an employer, but make sure only you and your friends can see the afterparty pics.

4. Did you order that parcel?

It’s annoying when you get a missed delivery notification for a parcel.

Next time you do though, take a couple of seconds to see if the email address looks legit, or if the email is using strange fonts, has spelling mistakes or any one of several red flags that just make it feel a bit… off.

And if you didn’t order anything to start with? Well… something’s clearly wrong there. Report it as spam, and make sure not to click any of the links or enter your personal information.

5. Slow down

You’ve got good instincts — trust them. If you get a random call or see something asking you to act now to help someone, bag a bargain or anything else — be careful.

Do you know that person? That’s usually a good place to start. Is that offer too good to be true? Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it probably is. Does that link look a bit sus? Don’t click it.

If you can do some digging to check where something came from and what it’s about before you act — if you act — it can go a long way towards keeping you safe.

A lot of scams are designed to appeal to your better nature and/or use FOMO to force you into acting quickly without giving something enough thought.

Things like banks and University accounts will have all sorts of technical measures in place to help keep your money and your data safe, but even just by being careful, you can go a long way to avoiding all sorts of scams.

Richard H, IT Communications Officer (he/him)