Avoiding Identity Theft On The Internet

 When it comes to protecting your identity on the Internet. A little bit of vigilance goes a long way.  

Adding an extra layer of security can be as simple as keeping an eye on your accounts, looking out for suspicious activity and shredding sensitive documents. 

Some data breaches are out of our control, like when retailers or other companies get hacked. We have to trust certain entities to hand personal data, but we encourage people to do all they can to protect their private information.

Complete privacy is difficult in the digital age, so users must be cautious and wary. Take these precautions to make sure identity thieves don’t steal your personal information.

1. Monitor Your Credit Reports

Keeping an eye on your credit is an important way to make sure no one is trying to mess with your personal financial information. If you want to see who is making inquiries about you credit, you can request a free credit report from any of the three national credit reporting companies:

We recommend reviewing your credit reports occasionally in order to make sure there is no suspicious activity and everything appears as expected.

If you want an extra layer of protection, a credit freeze is an effective line of defense against fraud and identity theft. As of September 2018, there is no cost, so learn 

2. Be On the Lookout For Unusual Statements Or Bills

Pay attention to statements, receipts and bills. If you’re signed up for electronic bills or statements, it’s easy for them to get lost in your email inbox. Regularly looking at statements will help you notice if there is suspicious activity happening in any of your accounts. If you become a target for fraud, you’ll want to catch it as soon as possible and contact your bank for help.

3. Shred Documents Containing Financial Or Personal Information

Don’t throw sensitive documents in the trash! Use a paper shredder or shredding service to dispose of anything with your full name, phone number, address, social security number, bank account information or other private personal details. Check out this helpful shredding guide, and consider shredding documents such as:

·         ATM Receipts

·         Bank and Credit Card Statements

·         Paid Bills and Invoices

·         Pay Stubs

·         Credit Offers

4. Use Caution While Traveling

You’re more vulnerable to certain types of fraud and identity theft while traveling. If you want to , take extra precautions. Let your bank know where you’re going and how long you’ll be gone and ask the post office to hold your mail. If any bills are due while you’re gone, see if you can plan payments before you leave.

While you’re on your trip, observe extra safety measures to protect your personal items and information.

·         If you need to pay a bill online while you’re away, make sure you’re connected to a secure wifi network.

·         Ask your hotel if your room has a safe, and use the safe to protect valuables and extra cash when you’re not in your room.

·         Exercise caution when using your debit card to pay local vendors and retailers; when in doubt, pay with cash.

·         Carry copies of important travel documents, and make sure to store them separately from the original versions. It’s also a good idea to have a digital copy of your passport stored online, just in case.

Types of Online Scams to Avoid

Sometimes, online criminals use manipulative methods to gain access to a person’s private information. Instead of guessing your password or attempting to steal your account information, they use sneaky techniques like trying to get emotionally close to you or impersonating one of your friends on social media. The scammer may end up soliciting money from you, accessing your personal data or installing malware on your devices. Here are a few common online scams to avoid:

1. Online Dating Scams

Online romance scammers will manipulate their victims by forming an intimate personal connection and then using the relationship to try to gain access to personal and financial information. All ages are susceptible to but studies have shown that senior citizens are particularly vulnerable. Help protect seniors online by educating them about the dangers of online romance scammers.

2. Social Media Scams

Online scammers are always coming up with new ways to manipulate people on the internet. Be on the lookout for  like fake profiles, catfishing, gossip clickbait, job offer scams and fake online scams. A good rule of thumb is to always check the validity of a website before allowing it to access your personal information. Never click on suspicious links, and don’t fill out online forms unless the website is legitimate and secure.

3. Text Message Scams

Text message scams can be a combination of various other online scams, including phishing links, gossip clickbait and other misleading and malicious forms of fraud. Remember that banks, government entities and other legitimate companies will never ask for personal or financial information in a text message, so never send your private information in an unsecure text message thread. Only give personal information via legitimate and secure website portals.

4. Email Phishing Scams

Phishing is a form of cyber-attack that entices users into clicking on a link that will compromise private data. Email phishing scams typically include enticing offers for gift cards or other free items. Always assume that if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. These types of online scams are especially prevalent during the holiday season, so be alert and don’t let  ruin your holidays!

Email phishing scams are constantly changing and evolving as scammers try to come up with new ways to take advantage of people. Stay vigilant, don’t click on suspicious links.

 

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Strategies To Staying Safe Online

 

Always check if your security software is up to date

Consider maintaining one email address dedicated to signing up for apps that you want to try, but which might have questionable security, or which might spam you with promotional messages. After you've vetted a service or app, sign up using one of your permanent email accounts. If the dedicated account starts to get spam, close it, and create a new one. This is a do-it-yourself version of the masked emails you get from Abine Blur and other disposable email account services.

Many sites equate your email address with your username, but some let you select your own username. Consider using a different username every time—hey, your password manager remembers it! Now anyone trying to get into your account must guess both the username and the password.

 

Clear Cache

Never underestimate how much your browser's cache knows about you. Saved cookies, saved searches, and Web history could point to home address, family information, and other personal data.

Clear your browser’s cache

To better protect that information that may be lurking in your Web history, be sure to delete browser cookies and clear your browser history on a regular basis. It's easy. In Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera, simply press Ctrl+Shift+Del to bring up a dialog that lets you choose which elements of browser data you want to clear. If you use a different browser, try that key combo regardless; it might work. Otherwise, search the menu.

 

Deleting cookies may cause trouble for some websites—you may lose any personalization you've applied. Most browsers let you list favorite websites whose cookies shouldn't be tossed.

Turn Off the 'Save Password' Feature in Browsers

Speaking of what your browser may know about you, most browsers include a built-in password management solution. I don't recommend them, however. I feel it's best to leave password protection to the experts who make password managers.

Think about this. When you install a third-party password manager, it typically offers to import your password from the browser's storage. If the password manager can do that, you can be sure some malicious software can do the same.

 In addition, keeping your passwords in a single, central password manager lets you use them across all browsers and devices.

 

Don't Fall Prey to Click Bait or Phishing Scams

Part of securing your online life is being smart about what you click. Clickbait doesn't just refer to cat compilation videos and catchy headlines. It can also comprise links in email, messaging apps, and Facebook. Phishing links masquerade as secure websites, hoping to trick you into giving them your credentials. Drive-by download pages can cause malware to automatically download and infect your device.

Unconvincing phishing domain

Don't click links in emails or text messages, unless they come from a source you trust. Even then, be cautious; your trusted source might have been compromised, or the message might be fake. The same goes for links on social media sites, even in posts that seem to be from your friends. If a post seems unlike the style of your social media buddy, it could be a hack.

Protect Your Social Media Privacy

There’s a common saying: if you’re not paying for a service, you’re not a customer; you’re the product. Social media sites make it easy for you to share your thoughts and pictures with friends, but it’s easy to wind up sharing too much.

You can download your Facebook data to see just what the social media giant knows about you. It may be quite an eye-opener, especially if you're the kind of person who routinely clicks on quizzes that require access to your social media account. Really, you don't need to know which Fairy tale princess or dog breed you are.

 

Beware, too, of hackers posing as your social media friends. A common scam starts with a private message and ends with hackers taking over your account and using it to continue the scam. If you get an odd or unexpected private message from a friend, ask about it using email or some other type of communication. Your friend may have been scammed.

 

You can drastically reduce the amount of data going to Facebook by disabling the sharing platform entirely. Once you do, your friends can no longer leak your personal data. You can't lose data to apps, because you can't use apps. And you can't use your Facebook credentials to log into other websites (which was always a bad idea).

 

Of course, other social media sites need attention too. Google probably knows more about you than Facebook, so take steps to manage your Google privacy, too. Make sure you've configured each social media site so that your posts aren't public (well, all except Twitter and other broadcast media services). Think twice before revealing too much in a post, since your friends might share it with others. With care, you can retain your privacy without losing the entertainment and connections of social media.

How to Recognize Online Scam

 

         

 A lot of people have tried to make money online – whether it is from competitions or quick money-making schemes. Everyone is doing it somehow and chances are, you’ve seen the adverts online: “You could earn over $1000 in one hour!  Just follow this…., that’s all you have to do…” But how do you weed out the scams from the legitimate opportunities? Here are a few easy ways that you can use to determine which websites are just waiting to scam you.

 

Are you asked to pay a fee up front?

Generally speaking, if you’re required to pay an upfront fee to use their services, it’s a scam. The website will claim it’s for the cost of training, but more often than not your money will disappear and so will your supposed training service.

 

Are you promised immense wealth in just one day?

There is no way, unless perhaps you’re a broker or something on the stock exchange, that you can make thousands of dollars in a single night. Scammers are generally very smart individuals, they prey on your dreams of “making it”. It’s especially hard for those who are just trying to better their circumstances to recognize a scam like this.

 

Think about what the “company” gets out of this deal

What legitimate company just gives money away, especially if they can keep it for themselves? You aren’t a recognized charity, so there is no publicity on that front. We live in a dog eat dog world and very few people in would willingly help you succeed for no gain on their side. When asking yourself what the company gets out of helping you make money, you need to see the reason behind the lies.

 

Question how they are actually making money

This is an important question to ask yourself, especially since they’re now helping you “make” obscene amounts of money. There are two ways in which websites can make money. By being independent of the user – this means that, regardless of whether or not you use the site or succeed, the website will succeed without you. The other way is by being dependent on the user – think of sites such as e-bay and the like. They need you to use the site in order for them to make money. Websites that are dependent on you, the user, are less likely to be a scam since they need you.

 

Don’t fall for “buy now” statements

These statements are there to create a sense that there is only a limited amount of something available. This makes the item seem more valuable than it really is and it’s human nature to want something rare that either very few have or only you have.

 

Don’t fall for “The rich relative” thing

With this specific scam, you’re told about someone’s really rich uncle, friend, etc. who has some trouble entering the country or wants to leave you all his money in his will. You’ll be told you need to “help” this person with a small contribution towards getting what you need and you’ll be repaid 1000 times over. These claims are never true.