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Discover how to protect yourself from being an Identity Theft
victim.
There once was a time when the only option people had when
shopping was to either call in or snail mail in a catalog order
form or to jump in the family car, fight through traffic, and
wait in long checkout lines to complete the purchase. Well,
nowadays there’s still a few major mail order catalogs floating
around and we all still visit our local retail outlets, but time
has also introduced the internet as one of our options to shop
from the comforts of home.
The
internet has made shopping at home a breeze and along with it
has unfortunately brought the so called ”Evil Doers” who I
believe have such little happiness in their own lives that they
must leech pleasure from the hardworking and innocent
individuals of our wonderful and surrounding nations.
And
yes, I am speaking of the ever growing problem known as Identity
and Credit Card Theft.
As
an online and offline consumer it is in my best interest to
protect myself while at the same time wanting to help others
protect themselves as well.
Below is a short yet thorough list of ways that you can follow
to help yourself stay safe and be a happy consumer and keep
“Evil Doers” at bay.
1)
Always shred sensitive materials such as bank statements before
throwing them away in the regular trash. Just because the paper
documents are in the garbage doesn’t mean they are safe from
peeping eyes.
2)
Contact your local bank or credit card provider to request a
card with a low limit. This can make you feel more at ease about
shopping at those not so familiar places and can reduce the
damages caused by such an ill intended individual if they get
hold of your number.
Also never give out the 3-letter Card Identification Number
found on the back of the credit card unless you absolutely trust
the merchant you are dealing with.
3)
NEVER give out your social security card number for any reason!
If capable you are best to obtain a tax I.D. number from the
Internal Revenue Service or local tax agency.
If
any “Evil Doer” gets hold of your personal information such as
home address, birth date, and Social Security Number you are at
great risk of being victimized.
4)
Only purchase items online through secure order pages which is
typically indicated by a small, yellow, “Padlock” image usually
located somewhere near the bottom of your internet browsers
window.
5)
If you ever receive an email asking for sensitive information
and claiming to be from a company that you have an account with,
NEVER supply the requested information and never click any links
or hit reply to send such personal information back to the
“company”.
Many legit companies will not ask for sensitive information via
email.
If
you get such an email you are better off to make a copy of the
letter you received then close that browser window and then open
a NEW window and access the company directly from their website
address.
You
should then submit the email you made a copy of to the company
so that their anti- fraud personnel can take the necessary steps
to send out warnings of possible fraudulent activity to be aware
of to its members.
6)
Be cautious about downloading and installing unnecessary
programs onto your computer. If there are programs that you
indeed must download ALWAYS scan the files for viruses and make
sure that your anti-virus program is up to date.
There’s a wide variety of viruses that are distributed to
unprotected computer systems and some of which are known as “Key
Stroke Loggers” that record your sensitive log in names and
passwords and then are made known to the trouble maker.
7)
If possible try to utilize 2 different computers when using the
internet.
One
computer should only be used for general internet surfing just
in case it was to obtain a virus such as a Key Stroke Logger so
there would be little threat of someone getting your personal
information.
Only use the second computer to access more sensitive
information such as online banking or other important websites
that require passwords and important information.
8)
Finally, if there are young members of the family that have
computer use privileges be sure to monitor and restrict the
sites and programs they are allowed to use.
Many fraudulent individuals love to prey on the unexpecting and
inexperienced web surfer.
In
any case just be certain to contact the police or appropriate
authorities the INSTANT you believe that you have become a
victim of Identity Theft or Credit Card Number Theft.
The
sooner you tell the authorities the better the chance they can
help you recover from a financial catastrophe.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As
a firm believer that people should grasp every opportunity to
learn, Dan Preston has been running a digital book store called
"The Online Book Store" for over 3 years that offers a wide
variety of how-to books to help answer all your need to know
questions. To visit his site just click the link
http://online-book-store.net.
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