-Install the latest operating system updates
-Protect your data
-Secure your wireless (WiFi) network
-Protect your identity online
--Secure your Mobile Devices
-Avoid being scammed
-Be wary of online offers that look too good to be true
-Call the right person for help

The best way to avoid being scammed by phony emails is to just make sure the sender is who you think it is. Check their email address to see if they match with the website you think it’s from. To be extra cautious you can check the IP address of the sender.

You can do this by finding the source information from the email and looking for the IP address that follows the line "Received: from." You can then Google the IP address to learn the email's source. (Here is a good primer on finding email IP addresses.) -Cale Weissman, Business Insider 2016

I will show you how you can decide yourself which site to trust with simple DO-IT-YOURSELF Test. I’m concentrating more on the sites where people go looking for a business deal or some services or to buy something. I mean to say it is more about “pay” things.  Here I go.

1. Look for Trust Seal :

Check whether the site you are browsing, has a trust seal by one of popular Authentication Service Providers  such as 

VeriSign, TRUSTe, McAfee Secure etc. Do not just look for logo. The logo must be linked back to the authentication provider’s site. Open it in a new tab or window and you should see the name of the site that you come from. Usually these trust-seal will be in homepage, cart page, payment page where you do online financial transaction.

Note, VeriSign is bought by Semantic in 2010 and from April 2012, VeriSign Trusted is Norton Secured.

2. Browser says a lot :

When you are accessing https:// content, your browser address bar should be green. All major browser gives a more detail about the encryption, when you click on the green area. In that way, you will come to know whom the website belong to, the encryption level (like 128 bit) etc.

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You can click on the image to view in a new tab/window.

3. Website Content : Quality Measures:

Observe the content of the site. Genuine-website gives importance to webpage design, User Experience. Check the content. If it has lot of spell-mistakes, poor English, then it is more likely to be an untrustworthy, counterfeit website. Also visit the About Us page, read about the company, it’s history, it’s achievements. Check out Contact Us page and see the Address. It should convince your heart: “Yes, I feel good about these people”.

 

4. Browser Extensions :

There are lot number of Free browser add-ons available out there. WOT, Webutation, Trustpilot  are popular among them. These mini applications runs on your browser, which gives you overall ratings and reviews by millions of people.

Many anti-virus companies also give you similar tools.  Norton Safe Web by Norton (Symantec), AVG Link Scanner by AVG, McAfee SiteAdvisor by McAfee and Dr.Web LinkChecker by Dr. Web anti virus are few to mention.

 

That’s all I wanted share with you. Do you have any other ways, please share through comment. I’ll update this article. If find this article useful, please share your feelings. Share/Like on your favorite social networking sites.