The hacking of email accounts is something that takes place quite frequently. As a result, there are tons of websites out there that will teach you how to safeguard your email account. Talking from experience, it’s a terrible feeling to find out your account has been hacked, not to mention the various illegal things that they can do once they’ve gained access to it.
Hackers are caught and arrested for hacking into other peoples email accounts, serving up to a year and in some cases more, in prison. So it’s definitely something that is taken seriously. For those of you that have had your email accounts hacked, I know how you must feel. So what kinds of things can you do to prevent your account from being hacked?
1. Never give out account information to others via email.
The vast majority of email accounts are hacked by using a process called phishing. Phishing is basically when someone sends you an unsolicited email which has a link in it to a website that appears to be legitimate, on that website they will typically ask you to put in your private/personal information. This is something you need to be very aware of, because once you give out your personal information, the hacker will be able to use it to access your email account, and in some cases your credit card.
These hackers spend a great deal of time ensuring that these fake websites look like the real thing. If you ever get an email in your inbox that asks you to lick on a link, never do it. If it asks for you to give out personal account information, never give it out. Instead, you should type the URL of your bank into your website and access the website directly. From there, you can log in and see whether there have been any notifications. Legitimate banks do not ask you to give out personal information via email. Alternatively, you may want to give your bank a call, their umber should be on your bank statement. But whatever you do, stay away from those emails.
2. Use a web brother, like internet explorer that has a phishing filter built onto it. These phishing filters are able to identify these fake websites, which are designed to look like the real thing. Firefox is another browser that has this feature built into it.
3. Do a little browsing around the options menu for your email account and check for a filter. Make sure that all the filters that are in place were put there by you; otherwise you should immediately discard them.
4. Try not to click on any links that are contained within an email, unless you know 100% where it’s taking you. There are many plug-in that you can find that will preview where a link is going to take you, without having to click on that link. Plug-ins such as these is also helpful in that they conserve a great deal of your time.
Remember, that the vast majority of times, it’s us that are giving these hackers the keys to out accounts. So we must be more alert, never click on any suspicious links in your emails and you should be fine.
Hackers are caught and arrested for hacking into other peoples email accounts, serving up to a year and in some cases more, in prison. So it’s definitely something that is taken seriously. For those of you that have had your email accounts hacked, I know how you must feel. So what kinds of things can you do to prevent your account from being hacked?
1. Never give out account information to others via email.
The vast majority of email accounts are hacked by using a process called phishing. Phishing is basically when someone sends you an unsolicited email which has a link in it to a website that appears to be legitimate, on that website they will typically ask you to put in your private/personal information. This is something you need to be very aware of, because once you give out your personal information, the hacker will be able to use it to access your email account, and in some cases your credit card.
These hackers spend a great deal of time ensuring that these fake websites look like the real thing. If you ever get an email in your inbox that asks you to lick on a link, never do it. If it asks for you to give out personal account information, never give it out. Instead, you should type the URL of your bank into your website and access the website directly. From there, you can log in and see whether there have been any notifications. Legitimate banks do not ask you to give out personal information via email. Alternatively, you may want to give your bank a call, their umber should be on your bank statement. But whatever you do, stay away from those emails.
2. Use a web brother, like internet explorer that has a phishing filter built onto it. These phishing filters are able to identify these fake websites, which are designed to look like the real thing. Firefox is another browser that has this feature built into it.
3. Do a little browsing around the options menu for your email account and check for a filter. Make sure that all the filters that are in place were put there by you; otherwise you should immediately discard them.
4. Try not to click on any links that are contained within an email, unless you know 100% where it’s taking you. There are many plug-in that you can find that will preview where a link is going to take you, without having to click on that link. Plug-ins such as these is also helpful in that they conserve a great deal of your time.
Remember, that the vast majority of times, it’s us that are giving these hackers the keys to out accounts. So we must be more alert, never click on any suspicious links in your emails and you should be fine.
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