Ways to Stay Safe in the Digital World

Highlighting the significant rise in digital fraud cases in recent years, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yasemin Bay, a faculty member at the School of Applied Sciences at Cyprus International University, emphasized that individuals are particularly targeted through fake emails, phone calls impersonating banks, social media giveaways, and public Wi-Fi connections.

“Fraudsters create conditions that cause people to make quick decisions, disabling their reasoning ability and prompting them to act impulsively,” said Bay, as she shared important information on how to identify fake addresses and links. She also stressed the importance of using strong passwords and being cautious with unfamiliar links.

The domain extension can tell us whether the message is legitimate. For example, an email supposedly from a government office should have a domain extension of ‘gov.tr’. Or an email from an educational institution should end with ‘edu.tr’,” she said. Bay underlined the importance of making sure the address is official, adding, “Sometimes, suspicious or nonsensical addresses appear in links. We must definitely stay away from such links.”

Bay also reminded that using public internet and charging stations poses serious risks in terms of data security. “If we must use a public Wi-Fi connection, we should never access our bank accounts, or log into accounts that require entering passwords. We should not shop or enter our credit card information while connected to such networks. These transactions should only be carried out on secure internet connections,” she stated.

When faced with digital fraud, Bay said the first thing to do is to quickly contact the bank or the relevant institution. She warned users to be cautious about unsolicited messages claiming things like “Congratulations, you’ve won a million dollars,” or “Congratulations, you’ve won a brand-new car,” and added, “If something is one-sided, there is definitely something suspicious going on.”