Identity theft can happen in various different ways and everyone needs to be made aware of how it can happen so that they can protect themselves.

Various forms of identity theft include:

-Online shopping: many inadvertently click on ads that end up to be a cover up for a program that can steal personal information from the user’s computer. There are also ways for thieves to intercept business transactions and steal credit card numbers or bank account numbers. Be sure that you are shopping via the company’s website and not through an email you received.

-“Phishing”: “Phishing” is a scam that has caught many off guard. This is an email, or even a phone call, that claims to be a legitimate company asking you to “verify” your account number with them. It is nothing more than a scam to get you to reveal your personal banking or credit card information and give them a shot at ruining your credit in record time.

-Data Breaches: This is something that individuals do not have any control over. Giving your personal information to a college or university, health care office, insurance company, employer and more can put you at risk of identity theft if there equipment does not have the ultimate security protection from being accessed by computer hackers.

So although you might not buy anything online, in fear that someone might get your credit card information or you may have never received or responded to one of those “phishing” emails, you could be exposed by a data breach.

LifeLock is valuable protection to have no matter how well you personally try to protect yourself. Many of their services are available only through LifeLock and you can get them as part of your monthly $9 membership. Use code Defense and try it for 30 days free.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.