All of us, or almost all of us, have bought something over the Internet at least once in our lives. Many of us make purchases on bulletin boards "from hand to hand". We decided to collect in one article the types of fraud that are practiced by hunters for your wallet. Therefore, the information will not be superfluous for almost any Internet user. Forewarned is forearmed, right? Read on to avoid being scammed!
Scheme with two gullible sellers
Friends, we want to warn you against a new invention of scammers. Now they have learned to deceive with special cunning, attracting two gullible sellers / buyers at once, and they themselves “get out of the fraudulent scheme dry”. Read on to avoid being scammed!
The scheme of the crime is as follows: the fraudster makes a deal with one of the buyers, while asking to transfer money to a bank card. At the same time, he indicates the card number of another person from whom he buys something. Thus, one victim transfers money to the card of the second, and the third party, the fraudster, receives the goods for which the third party paid.
The implementation of this crime may differ depending on the situation, but in the end, one person is left without money, accusing the other of fraud, while the real fraudster simply disappears.
Even more advanced scammers have even learned to steal SIM cards using the service of mobile operators to restore the lost SIM card. To do this, they call the victim from three different numbers, and then in the operator's office they call these three numbers, receiving a SIM card with the victim's number, and then, knowing the phone number and number bank card, withdraw money from ATMs using the "Emergency money" service. But this trick is applicable only for PrivatBank clients.
Fraudulent buyers and Oschadbank ATMs
Information about the increasing method of deception using Oschadbank ATMs. We want to warn you so that you do not fall for the tricks of scammers!
The method is quite simple and the main task fraudster - to lure the victim to the ATM. Here's how it goes:
- The scammer calls the phone number indicated in the ad, pretending to be a potential buyer. At the same time, he has little or no interest in the product itself, but immediately declares his desire to make a purchase. Very often, a scammer pretends to be a representative of a company - for example, a rental salon wedding dresses or a children's goods store.
- Further, the “buyer” asks the seller to provide card details to transfer payment for the goods, often specifying the type of card, as well as the account balance. This should definitely alert you: think for yourself, why would the buyer need to know how much money is on your card if it’s not you who will pay, but he?
- Then the fraudster says that he will transfer the money, but to receive it, you need to go to the Oschadbank ATM and follow the steps that he says. When the seller approaches the ATM and inserts the card, the scammer dictates his card number under the guise of a number money transfer and asks to enter the amount that supposedly should be credited to the seller's account. After the transaction is confirmed, the money ends up in the scammer's account.
As a rule, communication with such unfortunate buyers takes place in a hurry, they rush the sellers, ask them to quickly run to the ATM and press the necessary buttons, otherwise “the money will not pass”, they use other methods of psychological pressure. We ask you to be vigilant and careful.
Fraudsters and PrivatBank cards
The principle of work of crooks is unchanged - to force you to give them money, but the methods are constantly changing. We want to warn you once again and tell you about the new invention of the villains!
The principle of deception is very simple - a fraudster under the guise of a buyer calls, agrees to a deal and asks to make a payment to a PrivatBank bank card. At the same time, in addition to the card number, he is trying to find out additional data about the cardholder. For example, validity period, availability of a credit limit, etc. Often the deceiver explains the need for this information by saying that payment will be made from a legal entity.
In no case do not give anyone any data, except for the card number and full name.
In addition, the security service of a bank or any other company will never call you back to clarify additional data on the card. Only scammers do this.
If you received an SMS with a code that asks you to name the buyer so that his payment goes through, then you should know that you are dealing with a scammer. This is a deceiver, knowing your card number, additional data and phone number, he is trying to carry out the "Emergency Money" service.
But such fraud schemes can be directed not only at PrivatBank cardholders. Therefore, we ask you to be very careful when shopping online.
Don't fall for the tricks of scammers!
Free animals - a new way to cheat on the Internet
Attention all animal lovers! Ads began to appear on OLX, in which expensive animals, under various pretexts, are offered absolutely free. And everything would be fine, but only scammers make up such offers!
The text of such ads is often written with various details and inspires confidence. Fraudsters even leave a phone number in their contacts where you can contact and hear a convincing story about why the animal is given away for nothing.
There is just one problem - there is no possibility of a personal meeting to pick up the animal. Instead, scammers ask you to pay for shipping or transportation. The victim is offered to transfer a "symbolic" amount to a bank account or transfer money through international transfer systems.
Naturally, after the money is transferred, the contact number of the scammers will be disconnected, and the victim will be left without money and an animal.
Don't fall for tricks. Never, under any circumstances, transfer money in advance!
Remember, if you do not have the opportunity to personally meet with the seller, then you can use the cash on delivery service - when you pay after receiving and checking the goods. Many popular carriers offer such opportunities.
Cars from abroad: popular fraud schemes
Due to the fact that cases of fraud in the sale of cars have become more frequent, we have prepared for you descriptions of well-known "swindlers" and signs by which you can identify false sellers. Read on and don't fall for the tricks!
Given the high prices for cars in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, scammers often hook those who want to buy a cheap car. Standard scheme The deception is as follows - a tempting offer with a good car at a low price is placed on the bulletin board. Potential buyer contacts the seller and it turns out that he is abroad. Then the process of entering into trust and luring money begins.
It happens something like this: so that the victim does not guess about the fraud, the scammer comes up with a plausible legend, provides photographs or scans of documents and offers to transfer money through an intermediary company (car dealership, carrier company, bank, etc.).
Since fraudulent schemes are improving every day, there is no specific scenario. For example, a scheme is now popular when a seller from abroad offers to buy an already cleared car, which, however, due to a certain coincidence, is now in another country.
Here is a fragment of communication with a scammer who pretends to be a seller:
“The car is in perfect condition. I agree to all checks when I arrive. I can bring her to Ukraine in about 3-4 days if you want to buy, but I need a guarantee because I can't afford to make this trip in vain. My suggestion is this:
You send $1800 to Denmark via Western-Union, for example, in the name of your relative (father, brother, cousin... even a friend), and then you will send me a copy of the transfer by e-mail.
When I arrive in Ukraine and I give you the car, we will go to the bank together and you will change your father's name (for example) to my name, and when I return to Denmark I will receive money from the bank.
In fact, a scammer will be able to receive such a transfer. It will be enough for him to forge any certificate, entering the name and surname of the recipient there. After all, Western Union employees are not required to check documents for authenticity.
There may be a lot of similar answers, but they all boil down to one thing - you must pay a certain amount of a deposit.
Want to make sure it's a scam? Write to the seller that in just a couple of days you will be on a business trip in his country and you can drive up to him, see the car and complete the deal on the spot. Most likely, the seller will disappear.
Fraudsters "from the bank": how to keep money on the card safe
Bank cards have now become a very popular payment method for goods purchased on the Internet. Unfortunately, this is used not only by buyers and sellers, but also by scammers. Here is the story of one of the users - and tips on how to protect your plastic card from intruders!
The first rule is never to transfer data on your card to third parties, no matter who they are. The PIN code of the card is strictly confidential. secret codes, passport and registration data, as well as passwords that come to your mobile phone. By transferring this data, you run the risk of transferring access to your card accounts to a stranger!
Second rule - do not send SMS requests from your mobile phones, the purpose of which you are not 100% sure. This is especially true of SMS to short numbers.
Here is a story that happened to Valery, one of our users. He's writing:
“I sell, for example, some goods via the Internet. A potential client calls, says that everything suits him, he wants to buy and is even ready to make a full prepayment to a Privatbank card.
I say ok and send him my card number. Then, after a while, a person from a hidden number calls me and introduces himself as an employee of Privatbank ... In the turmoil of the working day, I don’t pay attention to what number he is calling from, especially since the number is hidden, possibly corporate. That is, I believe him.
This pseudo-worker says that a certain person is trying to transfer a certain amount to my account. I say yes, I know. Then he says that I am allegedly not connected to the "mobile bank" system and in order to be able to transfer money to me, you need to connect me. I don't know anything about mobile banking and I agree. Then this pseudo-worker asks with all sorts of tricky questions what Privatbank cards I still have, do I have a credit card, what is the limit, what debt, etc. Then he says, okay, I connected you, now the person who sends you money will be sent a message with a code to confirm the payment, he will send this code to you, and you will have to send it in the form as it is, to the short number 10060 .
If I have not used mobile banking services before, then in any case I do not know what the code that he sent me by SMS means. And I send this code to number 10060. And people like me, most likely, the majority, who, perhaps in confusion or ignorance, do not pay attention to the forwarded code and thus lose money. Naturally, it was a code of the form SENDxxxVAL + [Last four digits] + CARD, where the last 4 digits of the card were the numbers of my credit card, which they learned over the phone under the guise of a Privatbank employee, and the CARD card number is already their card number. The amount indicated in the code corresponds approximately to the credit limit that is still available to the victim, and which is previously deduced by their pseudo bank employee.
Be carefull! We hope this story doesn't repeat itself.
How to recover stolen money from a bank card
Most common in Lately cases of fraud with bank cards, when a fraudster withdraws funds from a card after the user discloses confidential information. We strongly recommend that in no case - neither sellers nor buyers - disclose confidential data, do not disclose confirmation SMS codes and do not perform any actions at the ATM at the request strangers, even if they pose as bank employees. However, people continue to fall for tricks. In some cases, stolen money can be returned.
Anastasia Borisova, a business analyst, shared her own experience of returning stolen money to a PrivatBank card. These recommendations will be useful to users of the LiqPay system.
“The situation is brief: the scammers called under the guise of buying my goods listed on OLX (SLANDO). They said that they would charge the money for the goods to the card. After that, “allegedly an employee of PrivatBank” carried out an operation to credit funds, and in fact - theft of my funds - from my PrivatBank card.
The key point of this case is that the fraudulent debiting of funds from the card was carried out through the LiqPay service.
To enter the account of the LiqPay system, you must enter a phone number, as well as a code that comes via sms. In addition to the card number and the name of the recipient, the victim reported this code, as well as her date of birth, allegedly to a bank employee. Having received the code, the scammers gained access to the user's account and transferred money from her card to another account.
Attention: to disclose sms-codes and personal information no one should by any means!
After the victim realized that she had become a victim of scammers, she still managed to return the stolen funds to the card. Here are her recommendations:
- Block your cards immediately.
- Go to the site www.liqpay.com and through the online form (the communication window with the operator opens on the right side of the screen) demand to cancel the last payment made with your card. Write that the payment is fraudulent, card number, your full name, debit amount, etc. (the operator will provide you with a form to fill out).
A payment made through LiqPay can be canceled if it has not been processed yet! In my case, it took about an hour and a half, and I still managed to cancel it, the money was returned back to the blocked card.
Yes, one more important point! After you return the money, block not only the Privat card, but also your phone number so that it would be impossible to enter Privat 24 using it, etc.
Do not pick up the phone and do not call back unknown numbers.
After the operation was canceled, they started calling me in order to try to restore my SIM card as well (by the last dialed numbers), and try to unblock my card again!
Be carefull.
As you know, if you don’t cheat, you won’t sell. For supermarkets, this rule is doubly true. Here are a few simple tips how to avoid being scammed:
Double label. The most common way to deceive a buyer is to stick a new label on an expired product, over the old one. Often the second label is also an excellent opportunity to overweight the buyer (in the supermarket, the product in the package is outweighed, after which the buyer is asked to pay for the package as well). Needless to say, the supermarket label is glued to the place where the manufacturer of the goods put the date of production of the product. If you have the slightest suspicion that the product is expired and that it has a whole series of labels on it, feel free to tear them off, no one will tell you anything.
Pastries and salads. Every second buyer knows that salads are prepared from expired products (or from those that have an expiration date). Baking is made from "suitable" milk, and the stuffing is products similar to those that go to the salad. In a word, if health is dear to you - do not buy salads and pastries in the supermarket.
Carts and children. In the past 40 years, the bottom area of a conventional grocery cart has almost doubled. The psychological feature of a person is to blame for everything - he feels discomfort from the fact that the bottom of the cart is empty. Therefore, if you go to the supermarket for milk and bread, never take a cart, it will become a real psychological anchor. Children will become another powerful psychological anchor. You are not surprised by the abundance of special children's baskets at the entrance and the keen desire of marketers to attract an entire family to the supermarket, of course with a child. The kid, as you know, wants everything at once, so parents will definitely buy him everything he asks for. And you can also take a closer look at the stands at the cash desk: they are a little lower than any other stands and they contain various tasty little things - everything is just for children's hands. It is enough just to leave the baby at home and promise him something tasty - this will help not to buy unnecessary things.
Music. Music, as you know, can be different: in the department with expensive wines it is calm and relaxed, in other departments it is more dynamic and active. Purchasing power also depends on music. Calm music inspires self-confidence and a desire to spend money on a big purchase (for example, on a bottle of expensive alcohol). Fast music encourages you to grab everything that lies and quickly throw it into the cart). Don't fall for these tricks!
Store planning. Any supermarket is carefully thought out in order to confuse the buyer as much as possible and force him to go as far as possible, involuntarily filling his cart with unnecessary goods. Surely everyone knows that all IKEA stores are built according to the serpentine principle, when the buyer does not have a single opportunity to reach the exit, except to go through the entire store. Many supermarkets are built in a similar way - the most popular racks (with bread and milk) are located at the end of the labyrinth, when the cart has already been significantly replenished with all sorts of nonsense. When going for bread and milk, immediately go for bread and milk, without walking between the shelves. Also, make a shopping list and stick to it. Diligently avoid bottlenecks in which products are “accidentally” stored, a traffic jam forms in this place, and while waiting for it to resolve, you will automatically buy several unnecessary goods.
Shelves. Several tricks are connected with the shelves at once. First of all, the most expensive goods are located at eye level, as buyers do not really like to bend down and reach for their goods. Another favorite way to cheat is to move the price tags on the shelves to the left or right, when there are price tags from other, cheaper goods opposite the in-demand products. In such cases, the fraud is revealed either at the checkout or at home. And often in the column of the same type of goods, goods with an expiring expiration date are put in the first place - “people hawala” and do not see it.
A cafe. Many supermarkets offer to relax in a small cozy cafe with expensive coffee and delicious, but no less expensive cakes - you hardly planned these expenses.
Lighting and mirrors. Many showcases have a special system of lighting and mirrors, which creates an attractive look for goods. There is nothing wrong with this, but you should not fly into the soft light of the lamps like a moth to a light.
Lotteries and promotions. Do you really think buying three packs of coffee for a cool white logo mug is a bargain? Promotions, special offers, sales and tastings are designed to sell stale goods as soon as possible - we advise you to bypass them.
Body kit. The body kit is the most favorite way to deceive the buyer. Take, for example, fruits: every day they are on the counter, they shrink a little and reduce their weight. Therefore, it is worth avoiding pre-weighed fruits in packages. Sweets, candied fruits, cookies and other bulk goods are weighed more clearly, at least 40-50 grams per kilo (you can check it on a control scale). Fish and seafood (such as shrimp) absorb moisture in ice and become heavier. Flour and sugar are also "accidentally" damp before packaging.
Bags and cells. One of the most unpleasant procedures during a supermarket trip is asking the security guard to open and show him the contents of your bag. remember - not only are you not obliged to do this, the supermarket security guard does not have the right to inspect you or demand to show him your things, this can only be done by a police officer in the presence of two people who understand your gender. When you try to inspect you, you can safely tell him you won’t do it without the presence of the police - in 99% of cases this has a sobering effect on the guard. In response to a persistent attempt to search you, you can directly state the following: “I would like the store administrator and the head of security to be present during my search - they will later apologize to me in writing for your incorrect work.” After that, there are usually no issues. You are also not required to deposit anything in the storage cells and you can go to the trading floor even with a tourist suitcase. And if you did, you know - despite all the papers that the administration is not responsible for the safety of things, in fact, everything is quite the opposite, the supermarket bears full responsibility.
Crash. Sometimes the product again “completely by chance” turns out to be delivered in such a way that it is almost impossible to pass by and not touch it (most often this happens in the department of wine and vodka products). After the “accident”, a security guard with a saleswoman jump up to the “guilty person”, offering to pay for the damage caused. Remember, the buyer's responsibility for the goods comes only after payment and receipt, so only the seller pays for any damage to it on the trading floor.
Accidental theft. Buying a large amount of goods, paying for it and putting it in bags, leaving the supermarket, you suddenly hear the howl of sirens and guards running up. It turns out that the cashier “forgot” to punch you some processed cheese, and now you have committed a real theft. You won’t be able to prove anything on the spot, and now you have two choices: either negotiate with the guards (we understand that this performance was started only for this), or wait for the police, and then pay a small fine in court. A similar situation can happen with pockets, but this is your fault. Do not forget to feel your pockets at the checkout, especially if you walked around the supermarket without a cart - you could accidentally put a chocolate bar in your pocket (in fact, this is the usual petty theft).
Cash register. Cashier is the most common place for theft and cheating. At the checkout, they can punch the same product twice, punch another product instead of one (not necessarily completely different, they can just punch a slightly different and slightly more expensive one). Before the cashier starts punching through your purchases, be sure to check that 0 is displayed on the monitor. While the cashier punches through purchases, carefully look at what she punches, you will delve into wallets later. If the cashier is not clean-handed, then such attention to her person will obviously strain the girl and she will not dare to deceive you. After you pay for the purchase and receive a receipt, be sure to check what is written on it with the contents of the food tray - the check should not contain extra products or six yogurts instead of five.
Every second person falls into the tricks of a pick-up artist. A nice guy comes up and begins to actively get to know each other. And here you are together - a cafe, a walk, romance, a bed ... And in the morning the gentleman disappears. If he does call, it will be in a month, and most likely he was just going through a bunch of other female numbers on his phone and stumbled upon you.
His hobby is to seduce, drag into bed and throw. And there are more and more such masters. If you didn’t know, now there are entire clubs in which men of all ages are taught at trainings how to get to know each other, how to get into bed on a first date, how to take the phone from a girl you like.
Coaches give tasks to their wards - to collect 20 phone numbers in the evening or bring a photo report of who they managed to meet ...
Such scoundrels need to learn how to calculate and immediately send to hell. These are not men, this is their pathetic likeness. And one more thing - pick-up artists like to get everything quickly and for free. So if the relationship is developing too rapidly, be on the lookout, otherwise you risk exposing your face and body in his photo report, which he will consider by the entire male team.
The second moment "collector" will not spend money on you - he is specially taught at trainings how to drag a girl into bed without spending a penny.
The domestic pikaper movement is over 15 years old. It came to us from the West, where it has recently enjoyed great popularity. Pick up - translated from English means "collect", and in slang - "remove", "pick up".
The pikaper differs from the usual street pests in his practiced habits and invariable success in his field. No love here and does not smell. In short, the goal is to meet in order to sleep.
It is difficult to draw even an approximate social portrait of a typical "collector". The age of professional lovers ranges from 18 to 40. Most of them are not married, have sufficient means of subsistence, not dusty work and a lot of free time. As a rule, pick-up artists are cheerful people, indifferent to other people's worries and problems. It is easy and interesting to communicate with a pick-up artist, but no more. Because in fact they are narcissistic and very superficial people.
Pickup Rules:
1. Find an "object" and get to know each other. In normal situations, men start a conversation with a standard phrase like: "Hi, what's your name?" or "Can you tell me what time it is?" Professional seducers do not recognize templates. So a female person should be wary if she is asked for no reason: "Are you waiting for me by chance?" or "Can you tell me where the nearest kissing places are?"
Pick-up artists have a club action model, a beginner model, a hot touch technique, an ex-boyfriend image destruction technique.
2. "Reflection of gestures". The guy repeats the movements that the girl makes, and this has a positive effect on her subconscious.
3. A number of points that they never omit when they go to seduce. For example, before asking a girl for a name, they first give their own. They always try to look good.
4. Place of action. As a rule, a pickup trucker goes hunting somewhere in the park, on the beach or on a quiet street near the university. Acquaintance at a disco or in a club is a classic. A girl doesn't have to be alone. Some modern Don Juan, on the contrary, believe that it is much better to approach two girls: together, girlfriends feel much more confident.
And the pick-up artists themselves go in pairs or threes, or even the whole "faculty", sitting at different tables. After all, what a pleasure it is to see how lucky or unlucky your friends in the club are. Many people play such games in whole companies, arguing over who will pick up more girls in the evening, who will pick up the most beautiful, and who will break off completely.
5. Phrases. Most often, the seducer begins to get acquainted with some kind of homemade workpiece. The most common ones are to say outright stupidity, to make a joke at your address, to suddenly give some kind of souvenir. Many pick-up artists believe that you can "hypnotize" a girl with touch. Constant touching should, as it were, prepare the interlocutor for physical contact in advance. This approach is immediately noticeable and gives out a pick-up artist with a head.
In no case should you flirt and flirt with him. Confidently interrupt any of his attempts to "get to know each other better." To send off a pick-up artist, you need to know what he is most afraid of: marriage and serious relationship, sexually transmitted diseases, partner pregnancy, rape allegations, and jealous husbands and boyfriends. In order to easily and effectively send off a pick-up artist, it is enough for a girl to more or less transparently hint at one of the above circumstances.
As an option, when the girl has already given her phone, and then it dawns on her that this is a pickup artist, you can do this: talk incessantly about ex boyfriends, dad, who has very extensive connections, a judoka brother (so that he knows that he won’t be in vain), act up, immediately hang on a guy, make plans for marriage, a child and sex only after the wedding, demand to take him to an expensive restaurant, take him to jewelry and demand diamonds ...
He will not be glad that he met you and will certainly delete your phone from among his "victims" - candidates for his bed.
Attacks using social engineering methods are not in vain considered the most dangerous. The most advanced anti-virus protection is powerless against gullible users who transfer their personal data into the hands of intruders.
We tell you how not to fall into the trap of scammers and recognize phishing at a glance.
What is phishing?
In general, everyone already knows this term, but let's repeat it one more time. Phishing ( English. Phishing, from fishing - fishing) is a type of Internet fraud based on social engineering methods. Its purpose is to steal logins, passwords and payment details.
Cybercriminals create fake pages of popular services and distribute links using spam emails. e-mail, in messengers and social networks. Inattentive users go to a fake site, where they enter logins and passwords for accounts on sites and services, or bank card payment information.
What do scammers want?
The task of attackers is to persuade the user to take immediate action. Fraudsters try to intimidate the victim in any way: they threaten to block the account, charge interest on an unpaid loan, or even sue. Phishing emails are characterized by an extremely demanding tone and urgency. Here's what attackers might want:
The letter refers to system failures, deletion of the account due to a complaint, or unauthorized access. To fix everything, you need to follow the link and enter your username and password on a fake site.
The letter imitates a payment receipt or money transfer that you did not make. To cancel a payment, you just need to go to the page of the payment system or bank (of course, fake) and enter your bank card details and CVV2 code.
Sometimes users win air tickets, new iPhones and large sums money, although they did not participate in any competitions. However, this confuses a few - naive "winners" follow the links from the letter, but instead of a prize, they get a lot of problems. Sometimes one of the conditions for receiving a prize may be filling out a questionnaire, where they casually ask for logins, passwords and payment information.
Sometimes the user does not need to enter anything, just click on the link. Then the malware starts to act automatically. Fortunately, it is able to prevent infection.
What does a phishing email look like?
Phishing emails are like "Find 10 Differences" puzzles, except that the safety of your bank account is at stake. Here are five signs by which it is easy to identify a phishing email:
- "Similar" URL
Pay attention to the address bar of the browser. The address of a fake site can differ by just one character. For example, - real, and https://club.esednod32.ru - fake. - Secure connection
Before entering your account login and password or payment information, make sure that the connection is secure. A secure connection is indicated by the green padlock icon in the browser address bar and https://(encrypted protocol). - Fake links
When you receive a suspicious email, do not rush to click on the links. First, figure out where they actually lead. On a PC or laptop, just move the mouse cursor and look in the lower left corner of the browser window.iOS mobile devices have a kind of immunity to such threats, so a suspicious link can be checked on an iPhone (of course, no personal data can be entered).
What remains are short links created on services like bitly or goo.gl . They can be decrypted on other services! For example, longurl.info or ciox.ru.
- Impersonal appeals
Fraudsters send out mailings to a huge number of addresses and do not know your name. Therefore, their letters begin with the words "Dear user" or "Hello." - Only scammers do this
A phishing email is easy to distinguish from a real one by a number of features: spelling errors, a large number of exclamation marks, caps locks, and colored fonts. Real mailings from large companies are made by professional editors and designers who never use bright red Comic Sans to grab the user's attention.
Where did the scammers go wrong?
- The sender is an abstract "Support Service", the address vaguely resembles an address [email protected]
- The recipient field is empty
- The header of the ESET letter is written in Cyrillic
- The scammers don't know your name
- The text of the letter contains a lot of grammar and punctuationerrors. Fraudsters use capslock, red font and exclamation marks to attract attention and scare
- The site address differs from the real one by one letter
- Signed by the abstract "Administration", the scammers themselves have not decided - are they "support" or "administration"?
Today, the quality of the Internet and cloud services affects literally everything. And when choosing a company that will provide access to the network, it may seem that all providers offer the same services, but at different prices. In fact, favorable conditions may hide additional costs, template scams and constant network failures. 5 useful tips will help you distinguish really worthwhile offers.
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The global web is addicting to everyone.
1. 24/7 technical support?
One of the most important features of cloud services for active users is timely technical support. Most providers lure buyers with its round-the-clock availability. However, in fact, in 9 out of 10 cases, an Internet company solves only its own problems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for example, turning off the Internet channel or a global failure of virtual machines. But they worry about banal client difficulties only on a first-come, first-served basis and only during business hours.
Only a narrow circle of companies really provide round-the-clock technical support without exaggeration. In order not to fall for the usual marketing ploy, you need to ask a few simple questions before signing a contract: “How quickly will they help me set up the configuration?”, “How long does it take for the provider to provide an IP address or be able to verify the backup is done?”.
2. Production capacity
One of the important parameters for the smooth operation or use of cloud resources is their maximum performance. Providers often do not provide users with the opportunities indicated in the contract. Additional money may be asked for the desired performance. And if they don’t ask, all customers are placed in one cloud space, where the loading of all the others depends on the activity of one.
Providers always conclude contracts more than their capacity can provide. But if all users go online at the same time, then the speed will decrease significantly, or even a failure will occur. To avoid such problems, you need to immediately find out the possible performance of an Internet company and further demand compliance with the signed contract.
3. Most trusted cloud
Another loud statement of many providers. To make sure they are honest, you need to do two checks. The first is very simple: we check the information in Google. The press loves to expose the failures of Internet companies to the public. If a search engine reports major data loss, a service downgrade, or a bad reputation for a company, you should definitely look for other options to conclude a contract. For providers who have successfully passed the initial screening, it is time for personal reconnaissance. Before processing the documents, you need to talk with the manager and ask a few leading questions. For example, ask about the availability of services over the past year or the opportunity to communicate with their customers. Based on the reaction and answers of a company employee, you can get a more concrete impression of the provider.
4. Who is responsible here?
When concluding a contract, it is essential to take into account not only technical capabilities company, but also its human resources. It is important that there are enough employees to ensure the smooth operation of all customers. Large companies should make sure that dedicated employees will be assigned to cooperate with them - a personal manager and perhaps even a project leader. Contact persons will quickly resolve all arising conflict situations to save the management of the company time, money and nerves.
5. Secrets of the right choice
Choosing a responsible and reliable provider is not an easy task. To implement it, you need to follow a number of rules:
Check the competencies of the company's employees to make sure they meet your goals;
find out the speed of solving problems and processing requests from customers;
"tempting" inexpensive offers are most likely a trap;
Read the contract carefully before signing;
find out the company's performance capabilities;
treat all advertisements with caution;
analyze company data on the Internet and reviews of real customers.
