While you may not need to physically chain up your computer to protect yourself from identity theft, the fight against identity theft is becoming stronger, while, at the same time, the rate of such crimes is also increasing. A new type of internet piracy has surfaced in the form of phishing, which means internet pirates are fishing for personal information such as account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers as well as other bits of confidential information. In the fight against identity theft, one must ensure not to provide personal information when replying to unsolicited requests, and not provide passwords over the phone or when replying to unsolicited internet requests. In the fight against identity theft, one should also take care not to click links contained in emails that are of dubious nature as it could contain a virus that would contaminate your computer.

Read More

Unlike the locked up laptop on the right, it is harder to prevent your email identity from being stolen. Email identity theft involves the fraudulent use of your email address for phishing or spamming. The usual victim of email identity theft is a commercial enterprise. Email identity theft is perpetrated for two purposes - to convince others that they are legitimate firms that have legitimate reasons for asking for people's financial information such as bank access, credit card numbers and so forth. This is phishing.

The second purpose behind email identity theft is for spamming. The most common of the ISPs and email providers have spam blockers. If, however, someone perpetrating email identity theft sends an email to an individual or firm under the guise of someone that person or firm knows the message will not be blocked.

Here are some tips on email identity theft prevention.

Read More

Internet identity theft is a concern, or should be a concern for anyone who surfs the Internet or transacts business online. As more people become comfortable shopping online, the opportunity for internet identity theft increases. Every block that is established to protect a person’s identity, another breach is made enabling a dishonest person to steal their identity.

In some of the most prolific scams of internet identity theft involve someone simply being asked for their information and, as unfortunate as it may be, some people willingly provide the necessary information to allow someone to steal their identification. A name, social security number and an address is basically all that is needed to assume someone’s financial identity.

Read More