In this Ever growing Electronic Era Identity Theft is fast becoming the choice of white collar criminals. The Internet is making Identity theft a global problem of near epidemic proportions. In the past Identity theft scam artists would scavenge the garbage cans of retail stores for Carbon Copies of charge receipts. Now that most store are going carbonless or even paperless the Identity thieves need to find other methods. Identity thieves are adapting and are using low tech and high tech methods to steal your identity. The most popular low tech method is taking your mail from your mail box. Not so much your incoming mail but your outgoing mail. Many people leave outgoing mail in their mail box for the postman to pick up when they deliver your mail. If you are paying a credit card bill by check the thief now has your Name, Address, Phone Number checking account number and credit card number. Drop your bill payments in a secure mailbox that is locked or better yet directly at the post office. The real high tech Identity thieves will attempt to hack into databases where credit cards are stored. Other high tech thieves use camera's and other devices to steal your pin number at ATM machines. Possibly the most popular high tech scams involve e-mails. These E-Mail Identity thieves will send you an e-mail pretending to be a Bank, Credit Union. Online Stock trading company and ask you to click on a link and verify your account. Never click on a link in an E_mail and enter credit card or any other personal information. Call your bank, Credit union or other financial institution and tell them you received such an E-mail Other Popular E-mail Scams pretend to be collecting charitable donations. Again call the charity direct or do a Google search for their web site and give that way. Never click on a link in an E_mail and enter credit card or any other personal information. Still another E-mail Scam pretends to be popular online companies like Paypal, Stormpay, EBay or many others and again request you click on a link and enter your bank account or credit card information. Never click on a link in an E_mail and enter credit card or any other personal information. You shouldn't fear the scamers. You shouldn't be afraid to purchase online or do online bill pay. You just need to be sure to take the necessary precautions to protect yourself. |
