A recent study by the University of Michigan has found that the majority of 214 US financial institutions web sites are not as secure as their customers may think. Many customers use “bogus” sites placed out there by hackers and don’t realize it. This means that many need to check to see whether or not they are a victim of this type of scam. With today’s technology, it is easier than ever to steal the identity of an unsuspecting internet user and use it long before they realize it. The results of the study are being presented at a security conference, however, the banks will not be identified. The process used by these banks to “securely login” their users are actually transmitting social security numbers that can be determined by an outside user. So far the best protection against this would be to log directly on to the institutions website and not to use any links that are sent to you in emails.

Always be aware of any questionable activity on your bank account or credit card statements. Check your credit report often and report any questionable activity immediately to all of the credit bureaus.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 6:31 am 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.