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5 TIPS BY GOOGLE TO KEEP USERS SAFE FROM CYBERCRIME DURING COVID-19
BY AARUSHI AGARWAL
With the spread of Coronavirus, the fear and uncertainty in the minds of people have also gone up significantly. People have started to feel vulnerable with regards to their health and financial conditions. However, there are some people who are exploiting these vulnerabilities and extorting money from others who fear the virus. There are false emails and messages circulating through social media asking people to donate for those who hit by the virus, they provide fake links which once opened it can hack into your systems. Sometimes even the people are manipulated to give their UPI information and then the cyber criminals spinoff the money. There are even cases where people are posing as WHO officials and are spreading fake news or sending out ransom emails threatening to infect the users if they don’t act accordingly.
Cybercrimes have increased by a considerable number with the spread of COVID 19 and in light of all of this; Google has realized some safety tips to prevent people from falling prey to such malpractices. These tips will help you spot these fraud mails and messages. Next time if you ever come across any mail, message or news report from an unknown source, make sure you keep all these pointers in mind to protect yourself from becoming a victim to cybercrime.
- Check the source
One common pattern followed by all scammers is that they pose as trusted and authoritative officials. If you ever come across any message or mail that looks like a mail from a credible government source, then instead of believing the mail and acting as per, you should refer to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) website to get your latest updates on COVID-19
- Donate directly through non-profit organizations
There are some scammers who send out emails and messages only to extort money from you. In times like these, we all want to help those in need and that’s a great spirit, to begin with. However, if you want to donate money to help the patients or the ones who have lost their bread and butter in this period, try to do it directly to trusted NGOs and not revert back to any of the emails that ask you for money
- Think twice before clicking one emails and links
Most of these spam emails and messages or alerts have call-to-action buttons. Think twice before you click on these buttons or links. The best way to check the credibility of these links is to by hovering over them and checking the URL for mistakes. The mistakes in these scam mail often related to spelling errors or no. For example; if the message claims to be a government message then the .gov will be misspelt like .gOv, etc.
- Know the modes they may use scammers to reach you
Most scammers use emails to send out spam messages but nowadays WhatsApp fake messages are always a very common mode for cybercrimes. Apart from that, scammers can reach yours through SMS, malicious websites and automated calls.
- Be cautious of who you are sharing your personal or financial information with
This is a point that you should remember in your everyday online activities. These scammers usually ask you to fill in your personal or financial details. Before you add your personal or financial information at any platform, take extra time just to evaluate the credibility of the message.
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Extremely helpful!!
In today’s world, more than 65% of the total population uses internet and cybercrime is something running parallel to this increased internet consumption. In such a circumstance prevention is always better than cure. Thankyou for sharing this article.
In the times of COVID 19, the topic covered is a much needed and important one. All the tips which have been given are helpful and are not tough to understand or to apply. Appreciable thing in the article is that good examples are used.
During this crisis, people should be helping each other morally and also financially. But this creates a scope for fraudsters to interfere. Only awareness can help people not to fall into the trap.
Please do follow the above-mentioned tips.
Spread awareness.
Good article and nice job.
People, confined inside their homes, have resorted to increased use of the internet, for work, social interactions, education and so on. In such a time internet has become even more indispensable and consequently more dangerous. Thus, the tips by Google to protect oneself from cyber crime are extremely relevant and useful. The author has adequately summarized them.
A really amazing article, in the recent times cyber activity has gone up many folds due to people stuck in their houses, using the net for work as well as entertainment. This has definitely let to a surge in cyber crimes too. The author has in this brief article has covered almost every aspect of the cyber frauds in the current times. I really appreciate how the author even focuses on how people who want to help others, are taken advantage of by the evils that prevail in the society.
Very useful content Thanks!
Most of us use Google for our daily works, It is a good initiative from Google to provide tips for safety of internet user considering the present condition (COVID -19 Pandemic), Thanks for such an amazing article!
very knowledgeable article about the cyber crime and their precautions, also gives the guidelines to protect from cyber crimes.
The article indicates all the ways people can protect themselves from scammers. All the tips mentioned if followed will help in reducing cyber crimes like scamming, identify theft and hacking. Must-read article.
In this ongoing pandemic of covid-19 it is very important for the society to keep them safe from such cybercriminals and keeping them away from the fake news which gives a very wrong impact on the society thus this article is very helpful as it provides various precautions.
during the pandemic google has given 5 tips Check the source, Donate directly through non-profit organizations and etc very interesting articles
During the pandemic, we should be aware about recent malicious activities online and should take appropriate steps to prevent any commission of cyber fraud online. One of the most famous organisation, google has given some times which we should keep in mind while transferring money online.
This was helpful. I got to know more about this. And this is true cybercrime has increased during this lockdown, as people are more prone to be preyed on while already being going through a vulnerability, like the pandemic.
This was a much needed article as it can prevent people from falling prey to cyber crimes. The writer has brief explained the matter in an very efficient way. As people should be made aware of the situation so that they can be saved from it. Overall, a good article
Its all about content and the author has done a tremendous job doing it.
With the growing numbers of internet users and most of them are unaware of that there’s a thing called cyber crime so i think tips is what is the need of the hour to create more awareness about the issue among the people especially the one’s who get their hands on the internet very easily because they are the most vulnerable.
Excellent article!! As social media is a part of everyone’s life, so it’s very important to keep the data safe.
Extraordinarily helpful!
During this COVID-19 pandemic cyber crimes are increasing day-by-day ,It is significant to know for every person that by taking what measures they can protect themselves.
The author came up with much needed information for online safety during the time of this pandemic through her article. The article is well informative yet some more points in the list of precautions would have been appreciated.
This article is very informative and helpful, especially during this period when the scams are increasing due to COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone should follow these safety measures in order to protect themselves from cyber crimes.
More details and instances of cybercrime happening right now is recommended. The author hasn’t given any conclusion to the article and the article also lacks personal viewpoints.
Well written article and the points mentioned is to be duly followed by all so as to avoid any crime.
As in the period of total lockdown most of person are active on internet and spending there maximum of time daily of internet and this make them prone to cyber crime so these point should be kept in mind so as to avoid these conditions.
The maximum use of internet is done by people in this crucial time of corona virus to entertain themselves. these tips are very important to be safe.