Identity theft crimes are not new, but they have become more persuasive in the past decade. One of the most insidious forms of white-collar crime, identity theft is a federal offense under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. It occurs when someone deliberately assumes an individual’s personal identity to impersonate that person in a legal sense. Stealing someone’s identity enables the thief to make a frightening number of financial and personal transactions in someone else’s name, leaving the victim responsible for what might turn out to be a mind-boggling turmoil in his or her life.

Someone once said, “The devil is in the details, and the truth lies somewhere in between”. Details such as your name, age, sex, physical description, mailing address, Social Security, and driver license number are everything a swindler needs to create your shadow identity, enabling him to buy merchandise, take loans and make other financial transactions, while you get stuck with the bad credit. The old X-Files motto “Trust No One” is especially meaningful for identity theft protection on the web. You must learn to depend on yourself for identity theft protection and minimize your risk by performing the following tasks:

a) Memorize your passwords. This is the most basic requirement for identity theft protection. Never write down personal identification numbers (PINs) or passwords. Do not use your Social Security number or any such easy-to-guess combinations. Avoid using the same password for different accounts.

b) Effective identity theft protection is now a necessary part of doing business on the web. Therefore, when ordering online, it is preferable to use PayPal, instead of credit or debit cards, because of the propinquity with which these cards give an imposter access to the cash in your bank account.

c) Another good practice for identity theft protection delineates that before purchasing online make sure that the site has a secure server. Secure pages begin with https instead of http, with a picture of a lock appearing in the lower right status bar. To verify the name of the server that appears on the digital certificate, double-click the lock icon, and then check the name that appears next to “Issued to”, if the name appearing next to “Issued to” is different from the name of the site that you thought provides the page, close the browser to leave the site.

d) Be sure to shred all documents that have important information on them such as account numbers, social security numbers, etc. Do not simply discard this information into the trash.

Keith Londrie II is a well known author. For more information on Identity Theft, please visit Identity Theft for a wealth of information. You may also want to visit keith’s own web site at http://keithlondrie.com/

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AOL assures their clients that no one from the staff of AOL asks for their personal or billing information. Also, AOL has created a system that deactivates accounts as soon as there are signs that it is used for phishing.
Other recent phishing incidences involve that of the Internal Revenue Service. There is a way for phishers to know the bank of their potential victim. Then they pose as an employee of that bank and send an email to their victim.
Also, social networking sites can be a home base for phishers because personal details that have been printed online are used for identity theft. Statistics show that over 70% phishing attempts are done in social networks.
Another technique used by phishers is coming up with a link in an email that belongs to a fake organization. They often use misspelled URLs or sub domains to trick potential victims.

Note the web address and check the @ symbol. For example, www.google.com@members.tripod.com may be a link that can easily deceive anyone casually observing the page. However, whoever clicks on this will be merely directed to a page that simply does not exist.
To tend to this problem, Internet Explorer and Mozzilla give users the option of […]

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It0s no secret that exclusive mortgage leads have become a necessary aspect of making a profit. Without them, one is basically sifting through age old, stale information that has been resold or in circulation for months. Chasing down non-exclusive leads becomes a waste of time, effort and money.
Typically, an Internet submission form requires very little information. This is to assume the air of a hassle free process on the part of the person submitting the information. In all reality, much more information is required for those who have to turn the information into a profitable lead.
Applicants in this venue are often not ready to make a serious decision about a mortgage and are in the very beginnings of the decision making process. Sometimes they are only looking to get an idea of the required elements that make up the process. It is not unheard of for a person to enter information that is incorrect, which makes verifying the lead a time consuming process.

Many who are in the market for a mortgage shop around on the Internet because they do not want to feel pressured to make a decision right away. On the other hand, this can require that they enter […]

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