Protecting yourself from Internet Identity Theft is
simply
a matter of taking steps: be careful with the contents of your email,
know
the more prevalent scams, and make sure the financial tools you use on
the
Internet are protected.
Email
What’s in YOUR Email?
Writing to family, friends, or businesses is an acceptable and
reasonably secure way to share information. More than likely the postal
workers won’t read or share your letter with anyone. The contents of your
letter are safe from prying eyes because of the envelope. Email has no
envelope! Every time you email something, it heads out into cyber space
and who knows what aliens peek at your information on the way to its
destination. Legitimate companies never ask for information via email,
because email is NOT SECURE!
Email Phishing
“Phishing” (pronounced “fishing”) is a fairly new Internet scam. The
idea behind phishing is just like when a person goes fishing. The
fisherperson baits the hook and throws it out hoping to catch a fish. Lots
of fish ignore the hook but one or two might grab it. Crooks throw out
masses of bait hoping that a few fish will be tempted and grab the
hook.
Morning coffee or tea is brewing and it’s time to check out the
morning’s email. Most of it’s spam (junk email) and is deleted that without a
second thought. Suddenly an email catches your eye. The subject line
could be:
Your account will be TKO’d from eBay
Update and Verify Your PayPal Account
Fraudulent Activity Notification
NOTICE eBay Obligatory Verifying-Invalid User Information
Citibank Online Security Message
TKO Notice: Urgent Fraud Investigation
You probably do Internet business with that company or you’ve visited
their site so of course you have to open the email; it’s official right?
Upon opening the email you may see something like:
“Today we had some trouble with one of our computer
systems. While the trouble appears to be minor, we are not taking any chances.
We decided to take the troubled system offline and replace it with a
new system. Unfortunately this caused us to lose some member data. Please
follow the link below and log into your account to make sure your
information is not affected. Account balances have not been
affected.”
(From actual phishing email received by the author.)
The email looks official and the link you are asked to click on looks
official, and here’s the really scary part, the website that pops up
looks very legitimate! The website can ask for your:
Login information
User name
Password
Account number
Social security number
If you fill in that information you have just been hooked and are now a
victim of Internet Identity Theft.