Have you ever lost a valuable object, or have you ever seen someone's misery after he or she has lost something they value? Now multiply that pain, and imagine that someone you trusted was the one who stole your valuables. Scams and robberies are events that inflict insane emotional pain as well as anxiety towards the situation, and I just found out firsthand how crazy it can all be.

Recently, I was actually the victim of a scam, and the scammer was none other than a friend who I trusted very much. I lost a huge amount of money after trusting someone who I've done business with countless times. I thought I knew him, that we were friends, but he betrayed me. This basically took the the motto of "trust no one" to a whole another level. While the scam did happen, and police did get involved, the whole situation felt overly complex and like it could have easily been avoided, thinking about it realistically.

If I had taken some preliminary steps to insure my safety before this event occurred, then I wouldn't have lost anything, even if I were the target of a scam. I never thought it could happen to me, and that's why I had no idea how to react.

Now that I know better, I have come up with a few tips to protect myself from being the victim of a scam while still conducting business online.

Here's what you can do to insure your safety.

1. Stick with the highest layer of security for all transactions.

Trust is a huge perk to have in someone, but always remember that anything could happen. The best and safest way to do a transaction is to think of all the possibilities in a situation and go with the way that provides you with the highest layer of security. It may be a friend or close person, but the chances that life may throw you a curve ball is always there.

2. Always use ad-block.

Now scammers are using multiple ways to trick users into losing their identity, information or money. One thing to do, is when you are on your computer, make sure ad-block is always on.

3. Be aware of what phishing looks like, not just what it is, and search up websites' legality before opening them.

Another safety tip is to make sure to view each email you get with detail. Phishing is a common scam tactic where info is revealed after a user is pulled into opening a fake email. The third way to avoid contacts with these scams is that when you visit or view a website that you haven't heard of, search up the legibility of that website to ensure maximum safety.

Scams will continue happening and scammers will continue to thrive of simple mistakes by people like us. Our best way to stay safe and stay protected is to take all safety measures possible to avoid being put in the certain situation. Think twice or thrice before you do anything that seems risky, and keep out of harm's way!