Computer Fraud is an electronic crime conducted intentionally for attaining unlawful financial gain. Computer fraud is a crime by law and is punishable at the act. You have to be very careful while working on a computer in public places or even at home. Computer fraud statistics show that as the use of a computer is increasing in our day to day routines, computer fraud cases are also increasing.
Most Common Types of Computer Fraud
- Manipulating corporate computer data for financial profits.
- Hacking data from a computer network such as personal details, passwords, etc. Spyware is software used for hacking your computer and view details such as websites you are viewing and also your personal details. Once hackers get this information, they use the same for carrying out fake transactions.
- Emails send to get your personal details to conduct any fraud. This is referred to as Identity Theft. One can take credit card details and use the same for carrying out a fake online transaction.
- Online auction act as a virtual market for sellers to sell the goods to consumers directly. You need to be very careful while bidding for any product. You should get the information about the seller in advance to see whether the same is authentic or not.
Tips for avoiding the various computer frauds
- Never give your personal details such as name, address, phone number, credit card details, and details of family members to an unknown person or company.
- Never get attracted to the schemes which guarantee you to get richer in the short term. These schemes are not true at all.
- Never view the emails from an unknown person.
- You should always install the anti-virus software on your computer and block the spam on your computer.
- Never try to download any type of attachment from emails sent to you by unknown persons.
- Impart knowledge to your children as to how to use the internet and have safe communication on the internet.
- Never keep passwords of your bank accounts or any other accounts on the computer. The password that you assign should be simple such as your or family members names, or birthdays of family members.
- Never give your password to anybody over the net.
Computer Fraud should be reported immediately to the concerned authority. Only then proper computer fraud investigation can be carried out and the actual cause can be detected. Also, computer fraud insurance against theft of securities, property, or money using computer is done nowadays. But coverage for computer vandalism is not provided.