How to prevent Identity theftPosted by Avijit on August 21st, 2010 Identity theft is a Cyber crime, which performed by malicious programmers, they are commonly known as hackers. What happens when your identity has been theft? A malicious hacker fraudulently access your personal information use them.What is identity theft actually? Identity theft is nothing but stealing your personal information such as ? name, address, telephone number, credit card number, social number and other sensitive information. How identity theft takes place? The person, who tries to intend to use other people?s identity ? is very resourceful. They try to access the information from different sources such as ? by sealing your wallet, from employer, landlord or even from those persons who have legal access of your personal information. There is another type of identity theft is ?dumpster diving?. It is a method, where the malicious person can pick the information from your business trash. Here is a brief list of your potential identity thefts ? ? Stolen your computer data Your personal information may stored in your company?s computer or insurance company?s computer and many other places. There is a chance, if any of them get hacked, your personal information may misused. ? Social engineering As mentioned earlier, the identity thefts are very resourceful; they will invent new techniques to grab your personal information. They create a social situation, so that you can disclose your personal identity. For example ? they make a phone call to you and claiming that, he is calling from your credit card company and asking for your sensitive information. ? Mail theft Mail theft is another kind of social engineering, your mail may contain you bills, banking information, credit card details, investment details and many other details, which generally notified through mail. ? Financial account hack Once the hackers will get your personal information, they will compromise your financial account. ? Credit card theft This scam includes a hi-tech stealing technique, hackers put a electronic device outside of ATM and other places, once you insert your card into this device, the device will store all the information. Later on hacker will access those information for malicious purpose. ? Old computers Sometimes, hackers use data recover software on old and scrap computer to retrieve personal information. ? Internet based scams Internet based scams commonly known as phising. Hackers send you the email, which looks like the original email sending by your bank or your credit card company. It is a trap, if the user responds the mail with the personal details, his / her financial details compromised immediately. To protect identity theft, you can follow the instructions ? - Check your credit and bank details regularly - Do not respond those emails, which asking for your personal information - Impose a physical security on your mailbox. - Do not share your bank details with unknown person. - Use internet security software - Before scrapping your old computer, permanently delete everything from the hard disk using any secure deletion program. - Check before inserting your ATM or credit card in any unknown merchant establishment or other public places. Like it? Share it! More by this author |