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How To Avoid Facebook Scams And Protect Yourself – Part II

Introduction

In the first part of this, I talked about what are types of Facebook Scams.

Now we want to focus on how to avoid Facebook scams.

This may not be fool proof, but at least we need to develop best practice as much as possible.

Normally we get scammed because of our casual and don't care attitude, which may cause us dearly eventually.

some things we can do while using Facebook

1. Set your privacy setting correctly.

I will not go into details of this, all you have to do is to go to the privacy setting and set the privacy setting which suit you.

2. Enable two steps authentication,

some may find this tedious, well, normally if you do not want to suffer this pain, you may suffer a more serious pain later.

3. Check carefully before accepting friends request.

Sometimes this may be a bit difficult to deal with, especially for those who are using Facebook Page for their businesses.

If that is the case, then you may have to exercise your discretion and intelligent to determine whether to accept the friends' request. you may want to carry out a due diligent online to have some ideas of the so called friends' requests.

4. Do not click on any link you come across in any FaceBook post you are reading.

Normally when we are surfing some Facebook posts, they are some links in the posts.

It is advisable not to click on the link unless you know the pages and posts you are reading are from reliable sources.

Sometimes, we may surf some news posts posted and try to understand and learn more about certain subjects, then you may have to be extra careful about the links in the posts you are reading.

5. Change your passwords every few months.

It is advisable to change the password of your login now and then, preferably after a few months.

This is quite a good practice, as it keeps you on alert and not easy for others to hack into your password.

More so if you have a very strong password involving lower case, upper case, character and number and preferably more than 8 characters long.

6. Check your login history and review any irregular visits.

sometimes if we review the history of our login, if we discover some irregularity, we need to take step to rectify, perhaps report to Facebook immediately.

7. Do not do your online shopping in Facebook if possible.

I normally do not do my shopping online, as I like to support the provision shop near my place.

Shopping on shopping platform may be good but on Facebook? I would not do that.

Why can't you do it on the Merchant's website? why must it be done in Facebook?

these are some steps you may want to consider.

Now we talk about what we can do off Facebook to avoid the scam.

1. Ensure your computer or any device you used to login Facebook is properly protected.

when using your computer or laptop or mobile phone to login to Facebook, ensure you have a good operating system which is updated.

you may also want to ensure you shield your device from public eyes when you are doing the login.

2. Report any irregularity or emails from "Facebook".

Most of the time, we tend to just click on the inbox of our email when we see it is from Facebook, without checking clearly the email domain whether it is from Facebook.

If we do come across this fictitious emails, we need to report to Facebook directly.

3. Have a good anti virus program in your device.

It goes without saying that a good anti virus software help to eliminate the threat and harm.

4. Use your common sense and logic.

Sometimes common sense is still the best control we have to avoid the scam.

If we can apply common sense and come to our senses, we will detect the scam easily.

What happen if you have been scammed, what can you do to minimize the damages?

1. Report to Facebook immediately.

If you think your Facebook account has been compromised, you need to report to Facebook immediately,

Hopefully they will take action and recover your account for you.

To me, Facebook should be doing the due diligence when one wants to open an account with them,

2. Change the login password.

as mentioned earlier, it is good that you have some complex password and change your password now and then.

3. Freeze the credit.

once you know your account has been hacked, you should call the banks and credit cards companies to freeze your account immediately.

4. Inform banks and credit cards companies to stop the credit cards.

the timing of informing the banks and credit cards companies will minimize your losses due to the hacking of your accounts.

prompt reporting may also help you to recover your losses.

5. Check your device and re-set if need be.

checking device if you discover there is some irregularity in the way your device is operating, it is best you can re-set your device, as for mobile phone, go back to factory setting, while for laptop, reinstall the operation system.

These are some ways we can do to detect and avoid Facebook scam.

Conclusion

Hope this can help you to be aware of the scams going on so that you will be more alert.

If you have been scammed before or aware of any scam, do share your experience in the comments section below.

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