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How to protect yourself from cyber crime

Posted at 7:25 AM, Dec 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-19 07:25:09-05

Last year cyber crime cost the global economy more than 450-billion dollars.

The problem is not going away anytime soon. The holiday season -- is prime time for thieves to take advantage.

Cyber crime is the type of thing is that there is very little chance that you're going to get caught and people are all over the world, it becomes a trend, a way of life for people

Jeff Dettloff of Providence Computer Services in Lansing ... Is all to familiar.

But there are ways you can protect yourself while shopping online. 
For starters, it's best to use a credit card.

With a credit card you have protections from credit card company's and if something goes wrong with the transaction, you can appeal to them and they can put a stop payment on that

If you have plans to shop on public wifi, for instance at a coffee shop that may not require a password, you might as well be handing over your personal information to crooks.

Someone else who might be nearby, they don't even have to be between you, just you and the hotspot, just nearby, they could eavesdrop on that translation and steal that information and use it for their gain.

Scammers have even gotten as good to send you fake e-mails known as phishing. They'll make you think that there is a package waiting for you and you ordered a package yesterday why not click on it, it's those types of things that get people in trouble.