Apart from entertainment and fun, online gaming comes with a risk of cyberbullying and online predators. New advances in online gaming including shared cameras, chat features and share file features increase these online gaming risks to a greater extent. Following some basic cyber hygiene to maintain anonymity while online gaming is important. Not following these basic preventive measures may lead to financial losses. Here, we will be discussing some basic tips that you can follow to stay safe while playing online games.
Risks Involved In Online Games
Online gaming comes with its own risks and you must be aware of them before you put your personal information on the internet. Here are some common risks you may have to face in online gaming.
Cyberbullying
One of the most prominent risks involved in online gaming is cyberbullying. Up to 75% of online gamers face cyberbullying once in a lifetime. The most common reason behind cyberbullying is poor data privacy. Poor data privacy gives criminals a way to find your personal information and use it for harassment.
Phishing
Phishing is an attack where cybercriminals pretend to be someone else and try to steal your information. Phishing doesn’t always happen through email, it can also happen through chat. Colour prediction games like Tiranga games give you a chance to chat with other players but sometimes this fun feature can also become a reason behind cybercrimes. Strangers may use this feature to send you to a spoofed website and infect your system with viruses.
Identity Theft
Identity theft becomes very common with accounts associated with PII. Like a lot of people on social media, gamers also tend to PII with strangers which can then be used against them in different ways. This leads to the stolen identity of these gamers.
Doxxing
Doxxing is the act of publishing your personally identifiable information to the public generally with malicious intent. These people then use your information to harass you which sometimes leads to swatting. You can easily reduce the risk of doxxing by following good cyber hygiene.
Tips To Stay Safe While Online Gaming
Let’s check out some tips that can help you stay safe while online gaming.
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Use A Strong Password
Your password is your first security key. Make sure you use a strong password having at least 6 characters for all your gaming accounts. Keep different passwords for multiple gaming accounts to ensure more security. If you can not remember these passwords, you can note them down somewhere or simply use a tool to manage them.
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Do Not Use Personal Information
We often use our personal information while creating a gaming account. Games like TC lottery require you to put your name, email and other details. We suggest you not use your personal information or tweak it a bit like changing your name while creating an account to avoid any misuse of the information. For a good engineer, it is quite easy to retrieve your information and then use it against you.
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Enable Multiple-Factor Authentication
Adding an extra layer of authentication gives you added security. Through a multi-factor authenticator, an OTP is sent to your mobile/email after you enter your credentials. This ensures that you are the one accessing your account. If someone fails to authenticate the login, they can’t access the account.
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Update Your Gaming App
With each update, software developers try to add new security features in the gaming app. Therefore, whenever a new update is received, you must update the gaming app to avoid any unknown vulnerabilities. If you want, you can also visit the official website to check for updates. For instance if you are playing a BDG game, you can check its official website and see if any update is available in case it is not available on the source you have downloaded the app from.
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Recognise Common Scams
Sometimes you can also avoid cyber scams just by using your common sense. Spoofing and phishing are very common risks in online gaming that you can avoid using some basic knowledge. Keep yourself updated about the new trends in scams, watch news to know what is actually happening and even visit the official website of the game to know more. Official websites generally post about the latest scams to keep their users updated and safe.
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Do Not Answer Messages From Strangers
Generally, cybercriminals reach out to you via DMs and personal messages. Make sure not to reply to any personal messages especially those which have a link or attachments to it. Also, make sure not to share your personal information on any portal just to redeem extra rewards or avail any benefits in the game. For instance, Goa Games gives you different chances to win rewards and bonuses but cybercriminals sometimes use this to their advantage and try to lure you into clicking an unwanted link. This is one of the most common ways for cybercriminals to reach out to gamers.
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Always Use A Credit Card To Make Payments
Although multiple options are available to make purchases in online games, we suggest you use a credit card for it as it gives you added security. Even on a video game store like Nintendo and Steam, we suggest you use a credit card rather than a UPI or debit card.
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Download Games From Trusted Sources Only
As much as it is fascinating to download a free version of the game, it is also risky. Therefore, we suggest you download the game only from a trusted source to avoid any malware attack. You can also choose to download the game from the official website and pay for it rather than putting your system’s security at stake. For those who enjoy playing 91 Club games can download it from the official website or if you want to download from a third-party source, make sure to download from a trusted source.
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Adjust Privacy Settings
Whenever you create an account on any gaming platform including colour prediction games like Big Mumbai, make sure to recheck the default privacy settings. Make those settings restrictive so that nobody can access your data and keep your data safe.
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Use Parental Control
If your child is playing an online game, we suggest you make the most of parental controls and enable the feature to keep your child’s identity and information safe. Through this, you can also restrict the game they will be playing.
Conclusion
Cybercrimes have become quite common these days but can be easily avoided by following some basic cyber hygiene. It is important to keep your data safe while you are doing anything online. For starters, make sure to use a strong password and use different passwords for different accounts. Also, make sure to not click on any unknown links or download attachments until or unless they are from a trusted source. Check out all the tips shared above and use them to avoid any cybercrimes.
