Internet Scams Designed to Steal Your Identity and Rob you blind

With all of the technological advances that we have made in recent years, we have opened up many new doors for identity thieves, making it much easier for them to get access to our personal information, literally handing them the key to our financial information. If you have never been a victim of identity theft, consider yourself lucky, and learn how to protect yourself in the future. Identity theft is what happens when someone, a would be thief, gets your personal information, and then uses that information illegally for his/her own gain. People who get caught, and are convicted of committing identity theft, are subject to felony prosecution, thanks to a law known as the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act.

You would think that you would only have to worry about protecting your banking and credit card account numbers, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Identity thieves, if they can get your social security number, full name, and maybe date of birth, can order a copy of your personal credit report, which lists many great pieces of information about you, that they can then use to literally open up several credit card accounts in your name, which you may never know about until you either look at your credit report, or try to use your credit for a purchase, only to be denied for having past due accounts. They can get your information from watching you enter your personal identification number at an automated teller machine or from digging through your trash to find pieces of mail containing your personal information. Thieves can hack into your computer, and load viruses into programs that you download, all which can steal your passwords and other information, and then send it back to the hacker, giving them all the information they need to steal from you and ruin your credit. Major leaguers have even mastered the art of manufacturing id’s, so that they can literally steal even your name and who you are.

Don’t wait until you find out that all of the money has been taken from your bank account, or that you have several accounts that you know nothing about which are past due, when it comes to identity theft, you need to be proactive and not reactive. Get a copy of your credit report at least once a year, and check it for any suspicious activity. Check your bank accounts often, and take steps to safeguard your computer from viruses and hackers, by using spy ware, anti-virus, and firewall programs, and only doing business with secure websites online. If you make a purchase online, you are much safer using a service such as PayPal or StormPay, than you are using your own bank account or credit card.

If you frequently spend time on the Internet, you should take the necessary precautions to safeguard your information, so that you won’t be the next victim of an internet scammer!