Everyday there are new scams being created to trick website owners or anyone on the internet, especially in today’s digital landscape. If you accidentally fall for any scams, the cybercriminal could get a hold of important information, or even steal a lot of your money. They also could potentially change your website in ways you wouldn’t want them to, ruining your online reputation.
One of the ways that a cybercriminal could scam you is by a phishing e-mail. They will usually try to send you a convincing looking e-mail that seems like it is from a reputable company. One example would be a fake e-mail that says it’s from Google, and that your account got hacked. This would try to trick you into clicking a link in the e-mail to recover account but would download malware to steal your information.
To avoid falling for this type of scam, look closely at where the e-mail is coming from. The address is probably different from whatever company they are trying to impersonate. Misspellings and grammatical errors in the body of the e-mail are also probably red flags. Lastly, always check where the link attached to the e-mail is taking you where it says it is.
Another scam for website owners is fraudulent SEO services. It’s important to have good SEO implemented in your website, but you want to make sure if you are using a service that it is a trustworthy one. Using a scam service can make your website not show up as high on search results, and they could be stealing money or information on your website. You want to do research on any SEO service you might want to start using as well as look at reviews.
Another type of scam targeted towards website owners are domain name scams. These scams try to get you to sell or change the domain name of your website. The scammer then will be able to generate revenue from this if you fall for it. This scam will usually come in the form of an e-mail asking if you are willing to change your domain name. Again, to avoid falling for this scam make sure to check where the e-mail is coming from, and that nothing seems off. Also, you want to make sure that your domain is secure with a strong password and maybe even add a registrar lock.
One last type of scam that website owners should be aware of is deceptive hosting offers. These once again are scams that will probably appear in e-mail and will try to get you to use a scam hosting service. Using one will allow the cybercriminal to steal important information and potentially steal money. Just like SEO services you should do some research on the service before you do anything. You also want to make sure the e-mail is legitimate with an accurate address, and that there are no grammatical or spelling errors.
In conclusion, there are a lot of different kinds of online scams for website owners and people just browsing the internet. Most of them can be easily avoidable if you know what signs to look for, but if you end up falling for them, then that can have dangerous consequences like having your information or money stolen. It could also damage your online reputation by making you appear lower on search results than maybe you were before. Make sure that all your accounts and especially your website are secure, and make sure that lots of your stuff is backed up. Lastly, don’t click any links that you are suspicious of or are not trustworthy.