Your information is valuable, especially when it's associated to a specific interest, dodgy websites will collect people's info and sell it to the highest bidder, you are then likely to receive spam and cold phone calls, often from less than reputable companies and in the worst case scenario some could even be trying to scam you.
If I truly want to access a site that I don't really want to sign up permanently to I will use fake details and a temporary email address like 10 Minute Mail for instance so you can even confirm your email address, you can usually even put in a fake phone number.
Never give any bank or card details to a company or website you don't totally trust, a common scam that is bordering on being legal is asking you to sign up to a free service, but in the small print it will tell you that after an initial period they will take money unless you cancel a subscription and people will often wonder why money is missing from their bank account with an unidentified charge before they realise what has happened, sometimes it can also be difficult to cancel and dodgy sites may not even openly advertise that you are starting a free trial before being charged if you don't cancel. Another example is a loan company that asks you to give your bank / card details as part of a loan application so they can pay the funds into it, but in the small print it will tell you that they're taking a service charge as an agent to look for loans for you on your behalf that you're unlikely to get without a guarantor when you have bad credit and you could just apply directly anyway, sometimes the money will even be a subscription which you are unlikely to ever get back. In fact never give money upfront for a loan, no reputable company will ever ask for this, a friend once fell for such a scam for a "guaranteed credit card" that was supposed to have at least a £1000 limit, but he got a prepaid credit card without any money topped up on it for I think £50 and he never got a refund. Even when giving your mobile number be warned, without realising you could be signing up to an SMS service where you're charged premium rates for every SMS received, what is worse is you could give your worst enemy's number if you knew their mobile number or someone you've fallen out with which potentially makes anyone a victim when they give out their mobile number. Watch out for phishing sites, E.g. fake sites that are a front end replica copy of a reputable website such as Paypal in order to steal your login details, often you may receive a fake email linking you to such a site, it may say something like "Paypal account suspended" and then ask you to login for details on unbarring your account on their fake site, sometimes you could be targeted specifically if you leave your details on dodgy sites. Be careful with using the same user name password combinations when signing up to websites, if the site is dodgy they could be testing these combinations against common sites like Paypal and using the same combination is dangerous anyway because servers are hacked more often than many people realise, I recommend using a password manager to keep unique and strong passwords for every site you sign up to such as Lastpass. There are obviously other scams and in the very worst case scenario you could even end up a victim of either identity and/or bank fraud.
PS: If you are ever unsure about a business website try checking them out on Trustpilot before deailing with them or even leaving any personal details. If they're not listed there try search Google for the name of the website and the word "review", or even the word "scam" if you are suspicious.
If I truly want to access a site that I don't really want to sign up permanently to I will use fake details and a temporary email address like 10 Minute Mail for instance so you can even confirm your email address, you can usually even put in a fake phone number.
Never give any bank or card details to a company or website you don't totally trust, a common scam that is bordering on being legal is asking you to sign up to a free service, but in the small print it will tell you that after an initial period they will take money unless you cancel a subscription and people will often wonder why money is missing from their bank account with an unidentified charge before they realise what has happened, sometimes it can also be difficult to cancel and dodgy sites may not even openly advertise that you are starting a free trial before being charged if you don't cancel. Another example is a loan company that asks you to give your bank / card details as part of a loan application so they can pay the funds into it, but in the small print it will tell you that they're taking a service charge as an agent to look for loans for you on your behalf that you're unlikely to get without a guarantor when you have bad credit and you could just apply directly anyway, sometimes the money will even be a subscription which you are unlikely to ever get back. In fact never give money upfront for a loan, no reputable company will ever ask for this, a friend once fell for such a scam for a "guaranteed credit card" that was supposed to have at least a £1000 limit, but he got a prepaid credit card without any money topped up on it for I think £50 and he never got a refund. Even when giving your mobile number be warned, without realising you could be signing up to an SMS service where you're charged premium rates for every SMS received, what is worse is you could give your worst enemy's number if you knew their mobile number or someone you've fallen out with which potentially makes anyone a victim when they give out their mobile number. Watch out for phishing sites, E.g. fake sites that are a front end replica copy of a reputable website such as Paypal in order to steal your login details, often you may receive a fake email linking you to such a site, it may say something like "Paypal account suspended" and then ask you to login for details on unbarring your account on their fake site, sometimes you could be targeted specifically if you leave your details on dodgy sites. Be careful with using the same user name password combinations when signing up to websites, if the site is dodgy they could be testing these combinations against common sites like Paypal and using the same combination is dangerous anyway because servers are hacked more often than many people realise, I recommend using a password manager to keep unique and strong passwords for every site you sign up to such as Lastpass. There are obviously other scams and in the very worst case scenario you could even end up a victim of either identity and/or bank fraud.
PS: If you are ever unsure about a business website try checking them out on Trustpilot before deailing with them or even leaving any personal details. If they're not listed there try search Google for the name of the website and the word "review", or even the word "scam" if you are suspicious.
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