A well known computer identity theft of today is called phishing or phishing scam, true to hacker approach, phishing means, well, as it sounds like fishing, by baiting individuals to divulge personal information using two baits. The first one would be an e-mail asking you to divulge your personal data in an e-mail reply and the other one will be a bogus website that appears to be legitimate and looks exactly like the original site, that anyone can easily be fooled to believe that it is the original site.

Phishing Scam – How Does It Work?

Usually the target will receive an e-mail that seems to come from a legitimate company that you transact business with. Now you have to remember that this may look like a legitimate e-mail coming from the company. There are two ways the identity thief can con you into giving the information he needs.

One is that the e-mail will tell you that your account has been compromised or that you’re account will be closed if you do not reply, so it will ask you to reply to the e-mail with your personal information, and you, if you don’t know any better, will actually reply and send your personal information to the thief, without really realizing what you did.

The other way phishing scam works is still using e-mail, you maybe asked to click on a link that will direct you to a website, and this website will look exactly like the original site. The e-mail will ask you to visit that bogus website and confirm your account information and since the fake website looks exactly like the original one, you will innocently type in your personal details, bank account number, passwords and PIN numbers and once you’ve done this, you become the instant victim of identity theft.

When They Ran Out of Bat

Internet identity theft can work even without bait. When phishers do this, it’s called pharming. Pharming is a bit more technical than phishing since it involves installing malicious code in your computer or your network server.

The more technical way a pharmer can commit identity theft is by sending out an e-mail that can affect you even if you don’t open the attachment, this works simply by opening the e-mail, a virus will install itself on your pc, more often than not, without your knowledge. And with this malware installed, trying to visit a legitimate site will just direct you to the bogus one.

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.

It is sad to realize that many Americans only think of identity theft protection when it’s too late.  We install firewalls and update our anti-virus software only after we have been infected by malwares and our browser hijack by these malwares. Or monitor our credit transactions only after we lost a significant amount of money thru identity theft and spent hundreds of dollars to fix our damaged credit reputation, do we finally acknowledge the need for identity protection.

If you’re one of the few diligent enough to be alarmed by the stories you hear on the news or alarmed by the number of spam you receive on your e-mail daily, then now is the time to act. Here are a few things you can do to avoid being victimized by identity theft.

Offline, the best you can do is to ensure that all your personal data are secure and that it is not easily accessible by just anybody, this includes carrying only the ID you need, so in cases that you’re wallet or purse gets stolen you will not lose any vital ID and make sure that you store it in a secure area in your house.

Also, any old bills, paper, envelope or any other document that may contain any personal information is not just lying around, if you don’t need it anymore, you should just shred it and throw it out, in separate bins if possible. Any old ID should be disposed of properly too, expired ID’s should be torn into several pieces and thrown in separate bins

Online, there are a couple of ways your identity. You can start by updating your anti-virus and anti-malware, also make sure that your firewall is turned on, this will help protect your pc from harmful malwares like browser hijack who takes control of your browser making it unusable for you.

Another way to keep your identity protected is to avoid being a victim of phishing scams, never open emails that you cannot authenticate, or email attachments that you’re not expecting, ask your friends to give you a heads up if and when they will send an email with attachment, this will help avoid downloading files that may contain malwares like browser hijack that will take over your browser and bring you to websites you do not wish to go to. Same goes for instant messages that asks you to click a link, no matter how enticing the offer maybe, do not click the link, you may inadvertently download the browser hijack software

Lastly, exercise your right to privacy, in any transaction, you don’t have to provide your personal details unless absolutely necessary, you can also determine if a certain company sends out periodical promotional announcements and/or phone calls, if they do, you can tell them not to inform you, this helps minimize unwanted messages in your e-mail and helps you determine which ones will fool you into downloading malwares like browser hijack and you can learn to avoid these messages and send them directly to the trash.

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.