Public Wi-Fi and online payments: a mix that continues to claim victims

Cybersecurity for individuals isn't about antivirus software; it's about habits. Ninety percent of reported frauds don't stem from technical vulnerabilities but from people being convinced through a phone call, SMS, or a well-crafted message to do the wrong thing.

A simple but powerful habit is to keep the minimum possible funds on the card you use for online purchases. Use a dedicated pre-paid card; load only the amount you need and nothing more. Even if someone manages to steal your data, the maximum damage is already limited from the start. A little friction, a lot of peace of mind.

If you've been scammed online, report it. Always. Even for small amounts, even if you're convinced that "it's useless anyway." Reports are the only way the postal police can reconstruct patterns and close associated accounts. Every report, in aggregate, protects the next person.

New European regulations, progressively introduced in recent years, have significantly raised the bar. Today, any online payment above a certain threshold must go through strong customer authentication, meaning at least two different factors. The practical consequence is that the classic "copy-paste" card theft is much less effective than before, and fraudsters have shifted towards social engineering.

If you receive a strange message from a fake courier, a fake bank, or a fake operator of one of the sites you use, there's only one rule: don't click. Close the message, manually open the official app or website, and look for the information there. Most scams die out when the victim ignores the link and authenticates through the official channel.

Two-factor authentication should be active on anything that involves money or identity: your bank, primary email, and favorite marketplace account. Even better is a passkey, the most recent and phishing-resistant system. It's five minutes of configuration just once, and it eliminates half of your risks.

Ultimately, the message is always the same. No platform can eliminate zero risk, but the difference between getting hurt and making a good deal often comes down to small choices, consistently repeated. The rest follows naturally.