Online Safety Tips

Follow us along our #SummerSafety series, where we’ll be highlighting various tips for staying safe while using various digital channels. For more information on how TextNow is helping keeping customers safe, click here.

Online safety is becoming more and more important as everyday activities like socializing with friends and grocery shopping trips are moved online rather than in-person or in-store. While spending more time online, it’s important that you are aware of how you can continue to browse and buy safely. We’ve outlined some of our top online safety tips that will help you avoid any unwanted surprises:

Construct a strong password.

What makes a password strong? Consider following these guidelines:

• Create a unique password you've never used before
• Include a variety of numbers, letters (upper and lower case), and special characters if possible (!, @, #, $ etc.)
• Make your password at least 8 characters long
• Do not include personal information that someone could guess (Middle name, mother's maiden name, a nickname, birthday etc.)

Beware of Catfish.

No, we don’t mean the bottom-feeding fish, we mean people that create fake personal profiles to trick, and potentially scam, the people they interact with online. An online relationship with a catfish can be harmless, but has the potential to be dangerous. Avoid these ill-intentioned catfishers by never sharing personal information, or providing money or other valuable items to someone you’ve only met online.

Recognize secure payment sites.

When making a purchase online, make sure you’re protecting your financial information as much as possible. Always check the URL for the site you are on before entering your payment details. A URL starting with https indicates a secure site (the s stands for secure), while http is not secure.

Identify phishing scams.

Phishing scams are attempts to obtain personal information under the guise of a trustworthy source. These phishing attempts can come to you through email, text, phone call or even a pop up right on your web browser. Check out this guide to recognizing and avoiding phishing scams to learn more.

Keep your software updated.

The latest software updates for your mobile and desktop devices will ensure that you have the most recent security releases and safety fixes enabled. Turning on automatic software updates will ensure you’re protected against the newest malware concerns.