Written by
Victor Dalla-Vecchia
Cybersafety Part 7: Cybersecurity – “Who goes there, friend or fiend?”:
Is Social Media a tool for evil or for good? Both, actually. It is a great way to keep in touch with friends and families, particularly those overseas. But unfortunately, it is also a medium through which scammers hope by ply their nefarious trade!
What should parents/guardians be teaching their children to help keep them safe as they navigate their online world?
- Keep their contact information and location private or protected by privacy controls;
- Never send pictures to strangers;
- Passwords are private (except to parents);
- Don’t trust anyone in cyberspace unless you know them personally;
- Don’t post or email any picture that they would not want the world to see;
- Don’t post or email any material containing hate speech, alcohol or drug references. This may be detrimental to their future job prospects;
- Agree on downloads. What apps are okay? Which video sites? What games?
- Encourage critical thinking. They should ask "who posted this and why?" This will help them find trustworthy information, and it will also help avoid online scams that deliver spyware and viruses directly to your home;
- Don’t respond to unpleasant or suspicious communications. If it is of a criminal nature, save it and report it to the police; otherwise, trash it.
- Remember that parents/guardians are role models and as such they need to be mindful of their own online habits;
- Keep channels of communication open. Prevention is better than cure.
How do you protect yourself from online scammers?
When you engage in online social networking, you may post pictures of yourself, make catch-up plans with friends, and generally chat about what you have been up to and where you have been.
But sadly, it also offers a plethora of unscrupulous individuals and organised cyber-crime syndicates an irresistible opportunity to gain access to people (e.g. via Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, online gaming or via email) in an attempt to exploit and defraud them of their money, or influence them in some way for some political gain.
Scamming is where one person, a cyber thief, pretends to have a legitimate financial need and exploits the generosity and naivety of another in order to obtain that person’s bank account or credit card details, with the ultimate aim of ripping money off that person.
How effective is a home antivirus at stopping electronic scum and villainy such as viruses, worms and trojans from infecting and spying on the home computer and passing personal information back to cyber criminals? The truth is that there is no antivirus software or firewall in the world that is capable of securing confidential data on a computer if these details are unknowingly and freely offered to scammers! How? Read on…
Ever gone fishing? You cast out a line and wait for a bite. Hopefully, the hook does its job and, hey presto, you have a catch! On the Internet this is called ‘phishing, smishing or vishing’ – same sound, different spelling; fishing may be legal, but the others are not, at least in most developed nations. It is what cyber criminals do – they try to trick children (and adults) into freely handing over their parent’s or their own credit card details. A firewall is useless in this situation.
What’s interesting about one type of scam is that it is not asking for money; actually, it is asking to put money into your bank account, and promises to then withdraw it at a later date but leave some money in there as a ‘thank you’ for being so accommodating. But do not be fooled! If the person is a stranger, then the person is most likely not a ‘friend’, but a ‘fiend’, intent on convincing you to allow them to basically give their money away to you for nothing, when in reality what they intend to do is steal money out of your bank account. These scams usually originate from organised crime syndicates operating in countries such as Nigeria and Russia, where there are no laws forbidding such practices, meaning there is no way you are going to be able to get your money back!
What should you do? Add the sender to the email or phone ‘blocked list’.
There is no substitute for parental involvement in a child’s online activities. Parents/guardians should establish an ongoing conversation with each of their children about his/her various experiences, providing guidance whenever necessary. Importantly, parents/guardians should go online themselves and join a social networking site or get involved with friends in a chat room. Parents/guardians should be familiar with the space their children are playing in.
To learn more about banking scams, go to Online Scams | eSafety Commissioner (https://www.esafety.gov.au/key...).
Complaints about general content on the Internet can be made to the How to Report Abuse or Content to eSafety | eSafety Commissioner (https://www.esafety.gov.au/rep...).
