Protecting Yourself From Online Identity Theft   

Contributed by Jay Schroyer

I remember when my younger brother got into his first car crash. He swore he would never ride in a car again and it wasn’t more than a month later before he was behind the wheel. If you’ve ever been a victim of online identity theft, I imagine you might feel the same way about the Internet. But in a time when more and more services are being switched over to the Web, you can’t afford to not be connected. The best way to protect yourself from identity theft is to prepare for it. Below are some preemptive and proactive steps that you can take towards avoiding online identity theft.

Security
As with any form of protection, security is the number one key. The Microsoft Corporation seems to find new holes and cracks in the security of Windows on a monthly basis. Make sure your computer is set to look for and download the important updates that patch these security breaches. They are of no cost to you and generally don’t take long to download. The most inconvenient part of the whole process is the fact that you have to restart your computer for them to take effect. Left unrepaired, these breaches give identity thieves an open window into your personal computer files where they can cull account numbers and other personal information.

With new viruses emerging everyday, it is absolutely imperative that you not only keep an antivirus program activated, but updated. Your program should remind you if your virus definitions haven’t been updated in awhile. Just like Windows, when you go online the antivirus program will take a look and see if there are any updates available. Without this important element of computer security, data mining viruses can infiltrate your computer, collect personal information, and transmit it back to identity thieves via your online connection.

Take a look at your firewall settings for Windows to see how much protection you’re giving your computer. You can access this feature by entering the “Control Panel.” Also take a look at your web browser settings. You can adjust the level of security for web site viewing through the “Internet Options” menu of Explorer. Make sure that you are using secure channels for Internet usage if your usage involves the transmission of private information. When accessing a site by address, type “https://” before the address which will instruct your computer to request a secure line for site access. Check your wireless settings as other nearby wireless users, especially in apartment buildings, can access your channel and “piggyback” on your transmission.

Requests for Information
When it comes to what you can do to protect yourself from online identity theft, use the most uncommon thing in the world, common sense. The previous items were all precautions concerning the actual hardware and software of your computer. The following are things that you personally will have to watch and curtail as Microsoft has yet to design a program that controls you! A good basic rule to follow is never input personal information into your computer. Don’t use it as a file cabinet to store account numbers, pin numbers, names and addresses, birthdates, and other personal information. If this information isn’t on your computer in the first place, then there’s really nothing that an identity thief can steal. Don’t fill out credit card offers online or any other documents that request personal information from you like social security numbers or date of birth. You can always get a hard copy, fill it out, and send it in via snail mail. Is it less convenient; is it slower? Yes, but if you want to taste real inconvenience, try having your identity stolen and the fun of getting that all straightened out.

If you absolutely must make a purchase online because you can’t resist the price or the convenience, then be smart and use your credit card. Using an online check or debit card takes the money directly from your account. If an identity thief gets a hold of those account numbers, you could find yourself with an empty checking account in the morning. Find out what your bank’s policy is, but chances are pretty good that once it’s spent, it’s gone. With a credit card, you can always contest the charges when they show up on your statement. For the most part, these charges are reversed if you provide the proper documentation or evidence that you didn’t make the purchases.

Periodically, you might receive an e-mail from a cyber thief who is “phishing.” This is the term applied to the act of sending out bogus e-mails in an attempt to collect account numbers and passwords. The phishers will appear as legitimate companies and their mail may even bear the same letterhead and logo as the bank or credit card you use. They might use other official sounding names like “Credit Monitoring Systems” and might even claim to help prevent identity theft from occurring. These phishers rely on the fact that people want to instantly fix problems with their bank accounts and credit cards and are willing to give up account numbers and passwords in an attempt to solve these problems immediately. Little do consumers know that these phishers are not associated in any way with their financial institutions and that they are being handed, on a silver platter, all the information they need to steal your identity. When in doubt, call your bank, call your credit card company, do anything but respond to those e-mails.

Just a miniscule of caution and preparation can go a long, long way to protecting your identity while online. If any of these terms are foreign to you, but you’d still like to do the most you can to protect yourself, you may want to try some sort of Internet tutorial to teach you the ins and outs of the World Wide Web. For the most part, your best weapon against online identity theft is common sense.

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