A Guide to Safe CyberTreking - Part 3

• Be savvy about any investment you are planning to make on the internet. More and more investors are using online discount brokerages. These investors are relying on information retrieved from sources on the web, sources which can be very unreliable. Online newsletters, bulletin boards and chat rooms provide the perfect forum for unscrupulous con artists to plant false information about companies. Our article on Techniques Promoters use to Promote Online Investments can assist you in spotting various scams.

• Don't respond to spammers (i.e., people who send you junk email) or to people you don't know. Email has allowed many marketers to directly solicit their products at no cost since one email is the same cost as a thousand emails. When you respond to an email, you are unwittingly, giving your email address to the person to whom you are responding. Spamming is illegal under internet etiquette rules but unfortunately, this has not stopped advertisers from spamming.

• Don't post to newsgroups if you don't want your email to be known to the public. Once you have posted a message in a newsgroup, your email address becomes known to the internet world. It is from newsgroup postings that many spammers get your address.

• Use credit cards to buy items located on the internet. If the purchased items are not delivered or our not what you expected then in the United States and other countries you can call your credit card provider to dispute the charges. To be completely prudent you can also use escrow agents who for a small fee will hold your payment until you are completely satisfied with your purchase. This is useful when buying an item from an online auction. Read our article on Online Auctions Tips for other useful tips.

• Rely on your friends, books, articles in magazines and newspapers to discover websites that you can safely visit and enjoy. Good sites don't remain secret for very long and after while such site become very popular.

• Finally always use common sense and keep yourself informed by reading articles from our Information Centre and other similar resources on the internet.