Identity Theft: How to Protect Yourself

Whether you are a net-savvy veteran, or a newly inducted net user, you are susceptible to a range of internet scams, tricks, and identity theft tactics by hackers and fraudsters. Any web user has to acclimatize themselves with the web, and as such, this means becoming informed of the dangers and scams that are posed to internet newbies. If you are safe, you will join the many informed veterans who are aware of the dark alleys of the internet and choose to stay away from them, whilst enjoying all the benefits, entertainment, and practicality of using the internet.

The same precautions as offline must be taken online. Would you leave your handbag full of cash and credit cards sitting in plain public view, waiting for an opportunistic mugger to snatch from a table? Or would you clutch the handbag under your arm, keeping a firm grip and being aware of your surroundings? The awareness and precautions you have to take offline are just as real online. Be it purchasing on ebay, paying bills online, using internet banking, making purchases with your credit card, or giving out any kind of personal information, you have to be very careful. What may appear a harmless registration form can sometimes be enough to extract information about you to be used for various identity theft scams.

Spyware, adware, malware, Trojans, viruses, and hackers are all a real threat to all computer users. Whilst some are better known through dramatic popularizations (such as the Nigerian scams), others may attract even the more informed net users to surrender personal details, credit card numbers or other information. Many sites may also 'trick' users into downloading malicious software.

Whilst many of us have experienced the effects of scams online (through inboxes full of spam junk mail scams), these are just the more obvious incarnations of more complex scams. With Nigerian scams, for example, users are preyed on through opportunities which appear 'too good to be real'. Whilst most probably recognize that they are actually scams, many people who are new to the internet or have unrealistic expectation of people's honesty will fall for such scams.