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.