Internet is a vast place where anything is possible, people turn to internet to earn money, meet a friend or watch a movie. Most of the teenagers are there just for socializing, but even then there are some security risks. Unfortunately even though teens these days know much more about internet than generations 5 days ago did, they are still not taking the internet security risks quite serious and problems seem to pop up one after another.
According to the US government over 60% of frauds is committed using internet. So people have gone from every day scams to internet scams in a very short time, internet is currently a necessary place and that is why it poses security risks. What are the most common internet frauds? 45% of all internet frauds are internet auctions, 19% are undelivered merchandise, 5% are check frauds and credit card frauds, identity theft and confidence fraud along with 7 other types of fraud take the remaining 31%.
Three of the currently most popular internet schemes are work at home schemes, identity theft and auction schemes. Auction schemes promise some amazing brands at unbelievably low starting price, something like an expensive watch is a common thing, the winner of the bid is unfortunate to find out when he receives the item that it is either a forgery, something else or he might not even receive anything. Work at home schemes are similar, they promise a materials and information for maybe $50 to $100 with promises of earning thousands from your home, of course money you gave is lost and you received nothing in return.
Currently the most popular type of internet fraud and the most dangerous one is identity theft. People that obtain your private data like social security number or home address and other personal data can do various illegal things with that information. Anything from applying for a car loan to getting a credit card could be possible, not to mention that once that happens you will be the one in trouble since your data was used to make those claims.
Internet is a vast place where people must be careful; one wrong step can mean a lot of trouble for all of us. Unfortunately teenagers don’t seem to realize the importance of keeping information private. They post their private data on various social sites and give out their important passwords though MSN and Skype. Teenager need to be taught how to use internet with caution, they need to learn how to be cyber smart. Being so called cyber smart is the only way to avoid getting scammed and ripped off like many people are getting ripped of due to Black Hat SEO traps. That involves spending some time on getting to know the internet and all the problem issues you might run into and how to deal with them. There are plenty of government websites that offer some kind of tutorial on internet safety, but there are numerous other websites that concentrate sole on teaching teens and children and even grown men how to use internet in a smart way so they wouldn’t be burned by scammers.
