Don't Become An Identity Fraud Statistic!

“You’ve just won a fabulous vacation or prize package! Now, if you’ll kindly give me your credit card information and social security number for verification purposes, you will receive this awesome gift!”

Now why would they need my credit card or social security number to send me a freebie? Can you say, “identity theft?”

Although there are legitimate reasons for people to need that information, such as a purchase or job application, thieves need it to steal your life and money from you!

Crime officials are reporting that this kind of theft is becoming quite common. Don’t be a victim! Follow a few common-sense suggestions to avoid finding out someone else has taken over your life-along with your bank account!

-Do not allow anyone to borrow your credit cards! Your best friend may be trustworthy, but her boyfriend may not be!

-Don’t provide personal information such as date of birth, credit card numbers, your pin number, mom’s maiden name, or social security number over the telephone unless you initiate the call.Don’t leave mail lying around for strangers to pry into. How well do you really know your teen’s friends?

-Destroy all bills, pre-approved credit card applications, credit card receipts, and other financial information when you no longer need such items.

-Don’t keep private information like pin numbers and such in your purse or wallet. It’s just too risky. We humans are much too forgetful. Be honest, how many times have YOU had to return to a restaurant or friend’s home to retrieve your purse? Is there anything in there that could harm you if it was stolen or lost? Time to check.

-Check your credit reports regularly. To order your report, call the three major credit bureaus at these toll-free numbers: Equifax at (800) 685-1111, Experian at (888) 397-3742, or Trans Union at (800) 888-4213. By law, the most you can be charged for a copy of your report is $8.50. To be safe, consider getting a copy from each of the three companies. If after reviewing your report you spot signs of a possible fraud, report it immediately!

-Keep your passwords and pins confidential and secure. Avoid passwords and pin numbers that will be easy for a thief to figure out. For example, don't use your name, street address or birth date. Also, change your passwords every once in awhile, just to be safe.

- Get Identity Fraud Insurance. It's just plain smart.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. Report suspected Internet-based fraud to the Federal Trade Commission or the IFCC (www.ifccfbi.gov/Default.asp), a new joint project of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime.

Phishing Filter - How to Use Phishing Filters to Prevent Any Information Theft

A lot of people are actually still afraid of using computers due to the fact that they can have viruses and people can manipulate them in order to serve their purposes.

This argument actually holds true but there are actually different types of "manipulations" that people can do. This is where anti-viruses and viruses come into play and one of the most recent developments is creating phishing filters.

Phishing is the act of "fishing" information via the internet, there are a lot of ways to do this from emails to spywares, and people can access your computer and steal your information without you knowing it.

Normally the accounts that people try to phish are financial accounts that cannot be subjected to information trace - especially if they can keep you locked out long enough to get the money into a bank and run away with it.

The most common ones in the internet are Paypal and Ebay Accounts. Apart from the usual spyware tools, scammers are using simple emails targeted at unsuspecting users. These emails come with subject lines like: "Last Warning", "Password Change Required" or "Your account is suspended" and a whole lot more.

These e-mails would appear to have come from eBay or PayPal and provide a link to their own phishing page. Now these pages are designed just like the original pages and the unsuspecting user ends up providing his/her sensitive information like username/password or Credit Card Information to these duplicate pages.

That's why I would like to add one piece of advice to all users that you should always see where the link is taking you by seeing the tool tip and then if it takes you to your usual Paypal address, follow the link.

Now in order to avoid this e-mail to ever land in your inbox you need to use a phishing filter. One of the most common ones at the moment is the Bayesian Filter that allows you to blacklist or whitelist certain individuals. It also easily integrates to popular email clients such as MS outlook.

By using this filter 90% of these types of messages will not arrive in your inbox, thus greatly increasing your phishing protection and it saves you a lot of time.

The next thing you need to use is anti-spyware software. One good program available in the market is called ad-aware by lavasoft. It is always updated and it is extremely simple to use. It runs through your computer like a virus scan - except that it only looks for spyware, which most of the time is not recognized by your virus scan as a threat to your system. Just download it and run it at least once a week and it will prevent any kind of phishing spywares to enter your system.

Now, all you need to do is just to keep these programs updated to protect your information and continuous awareness over phishing issues will also help you to be ahead of the curve and keep the scammers at bay.

Author and internet entrepreneur Bernard Pragides offers expert advice and tips regarding identity theft. Learn more about identity theft and fraud by visiting his identity theft blog and his website http://www.IdentityProtek.com for more helpful information.

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