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.