Internet identity theft victimized 2 million adult American within the current 12-month period and among them, 70% makes use of the Internet to transact business with their banks or pay bills. More than 50% say they’ve been targeted by Internet identity theft perpetrators through e-mail that usually installs malwares in the form of keyloggers in your computer.

Doing transactions online usually makes the work easier but when threats of identity theft abounds, what should be done? When you decide to go paperless and transact business and banking online, ensure that you are monitoring all your accounts at least once a week, so that any abnormal activity can be spotted at once and moves to resolve such can be done at the soonest possible time, this can help decrease the risk of identity theft.

Internet identity theft will eventually slow the growth of e-commerce and e-banking many experts predict. This is as more and more internet users realize the risks involved in paperless transactions including account hijacking, they will most probably look for other ways to transact and it will mostly be done offline. As keyloggers are getting installed in personal computers sometimes by merely by accessing or visiting a website, more and more individuals are becoming wary but  to the rest of those who still prefers to use the internet, will just have to be more aware.

Even as identity thieves become more aggressive, more Americans are becoming aware as well, and only about 5% of individuals who receive fake e-mails respond and many are used to receiving such that many don’t even bother opening them anymore.  And this is a very wise decision. Never open any email from companies, especially financial institutions likes banks and credit card,  if you didn’t send them any email in the first place, for this may not only wish to direct you to phishing website but may also download and install keyloggers in your pc to  monitor your keystrokes and gain your personal information.

One should be aware that a FIFTH of Internet identity theft victims have clicked phishing e-mails, installed keyloggers on their personal computers and gave out personal information without really being aware they are doing it. What’s more, it’s not only individuals that are targeted by this phishers, majority of big financial firms and even e-payment services like Paypal, who seem to have their a sound security intact, have also been attacked by phishers. Many have fallen prey, don’t be one of them.

Commercial identity theft can be defined by any of three things. It can involve the identity thief targeting all the employees in an organization or what is known as spear phishing. It can also mean the thief accessing the company’s credit account. The thief targeting a firm’s clients is the third kind of commercial identity theft.

Spear Phishing – Fish in a Barrel

This type of commercial identity theft hijacks the credit of people within an organization. This could involve the employees and/or executives of a company – as either the victims or the perpetrators.

This type of credit hijack uses a method known as spear phishing, by the use of an e-mail, allegedly spawned by a department within the company. The e-mail will often direct employees to a counterfeit website and ask them to personal information or will ask for an e-mail reply with the same info.

Usually, the thief (which can also be an employee of the company) simply copies the database containing all the account and Social Security information of everyone involved in the company and then these thieves can wreak havoc over the employees’ credit account information.

Commercial Credit – The Company’s Credit Account

Here, the identity thief gains access to the credit account, credit cards, and/or checking accounts of a targeted company.

This is done either by a computer hack that is able to gain access to the company’s computer database but more likely it is the work of someone currently or previously employed by the company whose access is readily available.

There is also the possibility that the identity thief hacks the company’s e-banking transactions, either by hacking thru the computers or by a simpler method like stealing checks or stealing and faking credit cards.

Commercial Identity Theft – Client Hijack

Aside from targeting the company’s credit accounts and spear phishing, an identity thief can also make use of the usual phishing scam or its partner pharming in order to victimize a company’s client base, usually by attacking a company’s computer network to harvest for personal client information.

The goal is to gain the client database of the company and gain access to clients’ credit accounts. In the end, the thief can clean out the client’s accounts before anyone else knows any better.

When an identity thief hacks a company’s database to hack their way into a company’s account, do spear phishing to get employee information, or access the clients’ database, you should learn to protect yourself from these thieves, gain useful information, and take steps to prevent hackers from accessing your account. Take. Simple steps you take can ensure that your identity will be safe from these hackers.