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Contents
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Identity Theft Tips and Suggestions
Identity theft is an online threat
Here, in part 2 of this article on identity theft, we will discuss some precautions you can take while doing business online to make sure that your financial and personal information isn’t stolen or used by thieves.
Continued below
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Identity theft online is growing exponentially
The problem of identity theft continues to grow, particularly as more and more people are doing business online. Online shopping, banking and handling of mutual funds and other investments each provide opportunities for the criminal mind to steal your valuable personal information. Once armed with your name, address and Social Security number, a thief can open charge accounts in your name, buy a house, buy cars and empty your bank accounts. In this day and age, where discovering that you are a victim can take nearly a year and clearing it up can take several years, one has to be careful when doing business online.
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Here are a few tips that will help you protect your personal information when using the Internet and will keep you from becoming a victim of a financial scam.
- Don’t do business with anyone that solicits your business from spam e-mail or a popup window that you encounter while Web surfing. This should be obvious; who would do business with someone who sends them spam? You would be surprised. One of the reasons people send spam in the first place is because it works. That doesn’t mean that you have to fall for it, though. Ignore spam, and get a good e-mail filter so that you don’t have to see it in the first place.
- Get a good firewall and antivirus software. A firewall, either a hardware or software version, will protect your computer from being controlled by a third party without your knowledge. Clever computer hackers can actually steal files from your computer system if it isn’t properly protected. If you have cable or DSL access to the Internet, you probably already have a hardware firewall, but it may be set for minimal protection by default. Read the manual and know how to use it.
- Never respond to unsolicited e-mail that asks for personal or financial information. These messages are usually fraudulent and are known as “phishing” expeditions.
- Never use a public computer, such as one at a library, to access your financial Websites. Your username or password may be cached on the computer, allowing anyone who uses the computer after you to access the site.
- Use good, hard to crack passwords. That means no names of pets or children and no birth dates or phone numbers. While it is often suggested that you use a combination of letters and numbers, such as abc3de4fg, it is much more secure and easier to remember just to use something longer. Any password that is over ten characters in length will be reasonably secure.
- Check the privacy rules of the sites that you frequent to make sure that they will not disclose, share or sell your personal information.
By heeding this simple advice, you should be able to protect yourself from a lot of online fraud. The people who want to steal this information are quite clever and always coming up with new ways to steal things, so you must remain diligent. A little bit of paying attention can go a long way towards protecting you from financial theft.
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