How to Prevent it

Identity theft and how to prevent it, part 2

Once armed with your name, address and Social Security number, a stranger can open credit card accounts in your name, buy a home, buy cars or trucks and empty your checking or savings accounts. In this day and age, where realizing that you are a victim of this crime can take nearly a year and repairing the damage can take several years, one has to be careful when doing business on the Web. Online shopping, banking and management of stocks and other investments each provide opportunities for identity thieves to steal your valuable personal information. The practice of identity theft continues to increase, particularly as increasing numbers of people are doing business online.

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identity theft victim

Here are a few tips that will help you protect your personal information when using the World Wide Web and will save you from becoming a victim of a financial scam

  • Never use a public computer, such as one at a school or library, to connect to your banking Websites. Your username or password may be cached on a public PC, letting any person who uses the PC after you to connect to the site.
  • Don't do business with anyone that seeks your business from unsolicited e-mail or a popup window that you happen upon while Web surfing. Spam may work, but that does not mean that you must fall for it. Ignore spam, and get a good e-mail filter so that you don't have to see it in the first place. Who would do business with a person who sends them spam? You would be surprised at the effectiveness of unsolicited e-mail; one of the reasons people send spam to begin with is because it gets results.
  • Never reply to spam that asks for financial information. Unsolicited messages asking for personal or financial information are typically forgeries and are known as "phishing" expeditions.
  • Experienced computer opportunists can actually steal files from your computer system if it isn't properly guarded. A firewall, either a hardware or software version, will guard your PC from being controlled by a third party without your knowing about it. Get a strong firewall and antivirus programs. If you have cable or DSL access to the World Wide Web, you probably have a hardware firewall, but it may be configured for minimal protection unless you adjust it.
  • Check the privacy rules of the Websites that you frequent to ensure that they will not disclose, sell or share your personal information.
  • Use good, complex passwords. Any password that is over ten numbers or letters long will help protect you on the Web. Although it is sometimes suggested that you use a combination of letters and other characters, such as abc3de4fg, to create a good password, it is a lot safer and simpler to remember just to use longer words or phrases. A safe password does not use names of pets and no birth dates or telephone numbers.

By heeding this simple advice, you should be able to protect yourself from a great deal of online fraud. A bit of diligence can go a long way towards protecting you from becoming a victim, although there is no perfect way to avoid crime altogether. The crooks who wish to obtain your personal information are rather smart and always coming up with new ways to steal things, so you must stay diligent. No one is going to look out for you, so you will have to take proactive steps to protect yourself. It is easier than you think; you just need to make the effort.
 

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