Your computer will warn you if you are about to enter a web site or page that is not "secure" meaning you information will not be encrypted to protect your privacy. To avoid inadvertently installing spyware on your computer, never open an email or email attachment from a sender who is not familiar.īe careful what you do, where you go and where you buy. The spyware can get to your computer via an email attachment. In the hands of an identity thief, this type of information is a deadly treasure trove. Spyware lets the spy access everything you do online including usernames, passwords, online shopping purchases and e-mail or chat correspondence.
If recipients clicked on the "AOL Billing Center" link, however, they were taken to a spoofed AOL Web page that asked for personal information, including credit card numbers personal identification numbers (PIN), social security numbers, banking numbers, and passwords. The perpetrator's e-mail used AOL logos and contained legitimate links. In a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) case, a 17-year-old male sent out messages purporting to be from America Online that said there had been a billing problem with recipients' AOL accounts. Phishing is an email fraud method where the ID thieves send you a legitimate-looking email in an attempt to get hold of your personal and financial information.There are two common ways criminals can target you via email:
A firewall is a barrier that protects your computer from anyone who tries to access it from outside without authorization.Įmail is an outstanding tool for communication, but we need to be aware of the potential for its misuse by identity thieves and act accordingly.
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To help secure your computer from an Internet security breach, install Internet security software including a firewall. Do not use a birthday, children's name, etc. When creating these passwords, always use a combination of numbers and letters that will seem completely illogical to anyone but you.
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You probably do not know the background of the pest control person or the housekeeper and without secure password protection, anyone with access to your computer could take a quick look and find data that they could use or sell to a hungry ID criminal. Ensure that "passers-bys" cannot access key ID and financial data by securing it with passwords.
Personal information, financial data and passwords all need to be protected to avoid their being stolen and used by an identity thief. It's easy to be lax with the information we keep on our personal computers. You see it in the news almost daily - "Stolen UC Berkeley laptop exposes personal data of nearly 100,000" or "FBI seeks stolen personal data on 26 million vets." We cannot control the security measures our employers and creditors take, but we can take important measures to ensure we are doing the best to avoid being an identity theft victim. Identity theft has become an increasing problem, with technology playing a key role. Unfortunately, the important advantages computers and the internet provide do not come without a clearly defined element of risk to our personal information.
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They have positively influenced the way we shop, find, store and use information, and manage our personal and professional business. Computers and the internet have changed our lives. When it comes to your identity, computer technology can be both your friend and foe.
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