The most common form of email identity theft is called phishing. We'll take a closer look at phishing and finally wrap things up by showing how you can prevent identity theft without paying monthly fees.
Security experts advise their clients that they should ever send sensitive personal information over the internet. But, that seems a bit extreme.
If you have the right anti viral, anti spyware and fire wall programs, you should be able to safely communicate with your broker, your spouse, your financial institutions and other people that you know. You just need to be sure that you really know them first; that they are who they say they are.
Phishing scams are becoming more and more sophisticated. In the early days, bad grammar and dozens of misspellings filled their emails. Today, you have to look really hard to spot even one difference between the messages they send and those that would be sent by true professionals.
Not that they aren't professionals. Scammers are professional con-men. There's no doubt about it. There's also no way to determine how many people have fallen for their cons. Some people are too embarrassed to even report it. They take the loss and go about protecting their accounts from future thieves.
In truth, there probably isn't much that anyone can do about email identity theft. There are several organizations that collect the emails in an effort to let unknowing consumers in on the latest scams.
Identifying phishing efforts before you become a victim is what you really want to know about, if you're like most people. As mentioned above, they are becoming harder and harder to spot. You can't forward an email to the anti-phishing organization and ask them to tell you if it is a scam or not.
So, here is one example of what you can do to avoid email identity theft.
You receive a message that appears to be from your bank or credit provider. There are no grammatical or spelling errors that you can detect. The logo seems authentic.
You are advised to follow the link in the message or download a form. Do not do either one of those things.
Call the bank or credit provider in question. Ask if there is some information that they need to verify. Do not call the number included in the message. Call the number on your statement or the back of your credit card.
In addition to using this tactic for email identity theft, some hoodlums use it to spread viruses. I call them hoodlums, because they are just like vandals. They gain nothing from this pastime. The viruses are present in the attachments. As long as you don't download them, your computer is not at risk.
There are many other things that you can and should do to protect your personal information from internet and email identity theft. Numerous books have been written on the subject. At least one of them is a worthwhile investment.
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