Ingram Computer Services wants to wish our valued clients a safe and happy holiday season. With Christmas approaching scammers are ramping up their efforts to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers. We want to make you aware of some steps you can take to safe guard your accounts, make shopping online safer and protect your privacy.
- Back-up your data! Ransomware is a common scam used to make consumers pay to get access to their data. It’s easier to protect your data with a proactive approach.
- Create an email account specifically for online shopping or direct marketing. This will keep your regular email account inbox free of spam and viruses.
- Sign-up for scam alerts at ftc.gov; this will keep you aware of recent scams.
- Make your account passwords complex with at least one capital letter, numbers and characters. Place the capital letter in the middle of the word or phrase.
- Never confirm your account information over the phone unless you initiated the phone call with a known source.
- Do NOT allow outside agencies or phone support access to your computer without confirming the source. Be aware companies like Microsoft and Apple do NOT call consumers at random to check on their computers. This is a common scam used to get access to consumers data and hold it for ransom.
- Keep your computer and software updated. Software companies spend money on research and development to keep their software secure.
- Invest in a good antivirus software such as Bitdefender or Webroot and have it routinely scan your computer for viruses and malware; and do NOT click on unfamiliar pop-ups.
Remember we offer free diagnostics so if you think your computer has a virus or malware you can always drop it off and let the experts handle it.
Hope all our friends have a happy and scam free holiday season!
