Internet ID Theft Prevention

You know what phishing is don't you?

You have probably received a phishing email or two, or maybe a good many of them. They pretend to be an email from your bank, some other financial organization or from any website that may hold your personal information.

The message of the phishing email is usually that something is wrong, you need to update your account details or provide additional information. There will be a link within the email that would seem to go to your bank's website.

Of course, the link does not go to your bank's site, or to whichever site the sham email is pretending to be from. It goes to a fraudulent copy. Sometimes the bogus website is rather crudely constructed and does not look much like the real thing, it sets an alarm off in your head as soon as you see it. Other times the fake site can be very convincing indeed.

The intention of the scam is to obtain your confidential information in order to commit internet ID theft. The fake website asks you to enter your password or update some other details, you innocently comply - whamo, the identity thieves have the information they need.

Often the ID thieves send out phishing emails to every email address they have, millions of them. You may have received such emails that seemed to be from a bank that you do not have an account with. Likely you just ignored it, but if by chance it seemed to be from the bank that you do business with - you may have been fooled.

Out of the vast numbers of phishing emails sent, only some will be received by people with an account at the bank, and only some of those people will fall for the scam. But that's enough for the identity fraudsters, committing internet ID theft on just a relatively small number of people can make them very rich indeed.

Such emails are likely to have a generic greeting, such as Dear Customer, Dear Account holder, or just Dear Sir or Madam. Your bank, or other organization is unlikely to use such a greeting, they would use your name. But do be aware that just because an email contains your name, does not make in genuine.

The best internet ID theft prevention is to not completely trust any email that seems to be from your bank etc. Do not click on any link in such an email. If you think it may be a genuine message from your bank then Google up the bank's website and use that.

More information about the dangers of Phishing Emails.

There are two things that you should have on your computer to help keep you safe when online.

You should have a firewall. Being connected to the internet without a firewall means that you are at high risk of being infected.

You should have anti virus software. There are many ways that your computer can become infected with malicious programs such as spyware, malware etc. These malicious programs find there way into your PC by piggybacking hidden inside things like free games that you innocently download. They also come hidden in email attachments and sometimes install themselves when you open a web-page. It is possible that the author of the web-page knows nothing about the virus because it was installed there by identity thieves.

Once installed in your computer these malicious programs can access your personal information and use it to steal your identity.

Good anti virus software provides good internet ID theft prevention because it will detect any virus, or malicious programs, on your PC and delete them. It will also help stop these programs finding their way onto your machine in the first place.

However, just having anti virus software is not enough, it must be updated regularly.

New viruses and malicious programs are coming out all the time, stay updated to keep your identity protected.

Whichever internet browser you use, Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, Chrome etc. there will be times that you are advised to update to the latest version. Sometimes this is done automatically.

You may find this can be a bit of a pain in the butt. You may have to close all programs that you are using and either restart your computer, or restart your browser.

So, you dutifully do this and wait for everything to load up and . . . what! The new version of your browser seems to be no different at all from the last version, no new whistles and bells or anything, except that new version number.

So why did they encourage you to update, were they just playing a game with you? No, there was probably a very good reason for the update.

The update could be to add new functionality (more whistles and bells,) or because some bugs had been discovered in the old version. Often though, the update is for internet security reasons.

A security flaw may be discovered that allows thieves and other malicious persons access to your data. These flaws may make you vulnerable to internet ID theft.

The propeller heads work hard to develop fixes for these flaws and then incorporate them in a new version of the browser. Thus keeping up to date makes you safer online, less chance of someone infecting your computer with viruses, stealing your data, discovering your passwords, stealing your identity.

But why the constant need for updates if they have fixed the security flaws?

Because the identity thieves are always looking for new flaws, or for ways to exploit the browser, they have their own experts. Eventually the identity thieves strike lucky and a new version of the browser is needed, it goes around in a circle, it's a cat and mouse game.

To stay ahead of the game . . . always use the latest version of your browser and stay safe from internet ID theft.

Of course you know never to disclose any of your passwords, or usernames etc., to anyone don't you? Good. But do you also know never to keep your passwords on a file on your computer?

If ID thieves are able to invade your computer what a gift it would be to find your passwords stored on a file. It would make their criminal task so easy for them.

Do you use weak passwords or secure passwords?

Thankfully most people nowadays know better than to use names, birth dates, phone numbers etc. for their passwords. Things like that are relatively easy to guess.

Do not just use a run of numbers for a password, use a mix of letters and numbers. If you can use both upper and lower case letters, so much the better and if you can use special characters that's better still.

The longer a password is the more secure it is. Identity thieves have software that helps them crack pass codes, but a long password with a mix of character types still presents them with problems.

Don't let a weak password be the reason you fall victim to online ID theft.