Keep Your Money Safe Online
A lot of the time we take the internet for granted, myself included. The idea of keeping your identity or money safe online is often forgotten. Signing up for a new store to purchase something online is so easy that I think a child could do it. In some ways it’s easier than popping to town and into a physical shop to buy something because you can do it from the comfort of your own home. There’s no store assistant judging you for being in your pyjamas when your shopping online. Just me?
Hacked Account
You hear these words in headlines all the time and hope that it never happens to you. The reason that this post came about is because my girlfriend’s Amazon account got hacked yesterday. She got an email suggesting that her delivery address had been changed on her recent order. That was the first clue. She hadn’t made an order. Her Amazon app showed nothing. The only evidence was email confirmation of a foolish alcoholic’s order – they ordered champagne and vodka, I jumped to a conclusion.
A swift call to Amazon Customer Services rendered her account disabled… or so we thought! Another array of order confirmation emails dropped into her inbox today along with a new address and a change of the default email address on the account. As well as another call to Amazon, she called her bank to report the wrong doings and got her card cancelled.
The saga continues…
Saving Your Card Details
We both have Amazon accounts. We both order a lot from the online super retailer. It’s so easy. though we both have our bank cards saved with them to make our lives easier when we make orders.
You may have read that I’ve started matched betting recently, but I know that every bookmaker that I’ve signed up to has a copy of my card on their system to make life easier for me the next time I want to make a deposit… Or is it to tempt me into to making another deposit easily? That’s how they make money.
Have a think about it though. The last time you went into a physical store, did the cashier ask to keep a copy of your card details to make shopping next time easier? No? Would you give them the details even if they did ask? Didn’t think so. We do that online with almost every store, without a second thought!
Keep your Money Safe Online
If you’ve been reading my blog and have setup some form of financial automation, then I like to think that you are already good to go with online banking. All banks should have some kind of increased security before they let you log in.
Two Factor Authentication or 2FA adds to security by requiring something you know, like a password and something you have, like a token code either on a physical token, or an app on your phone.
Setup Two Factor Authentication
I was already partially setup with 2FA in that I used it on my Google Gmail account. I felt pretty secure. But since this whole account hack took place, I’ve been investigating where else I can add 2FA. Amazon is one of those places. Every little bit of security helps.
I use Google Authenticator from the App Store as my Authenticator app. It’s simple, and popular meaning a lot more companies accept it. To name a few, the following companies accept 2FA
- Amazon
- Gmail
- Paypal
- HMRC
There are lots more to add to the list! The easiest way is to Google to find out.
Keep your Identity Safe Online
Money is one thing, but identity theft is still on the rise. As well as modifying your privacy settings on most social media platforms, you should also add two factor authentication to each platform that accepts it! It’s well worth doing.
Have you been hacked? Let us know in the comments what you did to resolve it!
