An effective identity theft solution can’t only be the work of a single entity. You can take all the necessary steps to prevent identity theft, for example, but if your bank does not set up a proactive identity theft solution, then all the steps you took may be all for naught.

For the solution to identity theft to be successful, it should be the result of the collaboration among the consumer, industry, and the government:

For the Consumers

There are several ways that you can protect yourself from identity theft, you should take the necessary steps to prevent identity theft and it all boils down to two very important things, one is your computer habits, and second is the way you convey and receive personal data.

Protect your computer habits
-    Make use of passwords to protect your personal information
-    Visit only secure websites
-    Keep your anti-virus software updated and run periodic scans

Transmittal and reception of personal data
-    Make sure your firewall is set up to regulate data coming in and out of your hard drive
-    Make sure that your monthly banks statements and credit card billing comes to you securely. Having a locked mail box is one of them.
-    Avoid having to give out your SSN or driver’s license by offering to provide an alternate identification.

For The Industry

You can ensure that the industry does it part in protecting your identity, you must ensure that they have taken steps to prevent identity theft from happening in their establishment. As a consumer you have the right to demand a satisfactory service from them and you have the right to take your business elsewhere if they fail to meet your standards and you also have the ability to let others know of their dissatisfactory service.

The Government

Congress is in the process of crafting more stringent federal laws that penalize database managers who have second-rate security. Laws are also in place that allows you to have greater control of identity theft targets like your credit, for instance. Half the states have set us Credit Alert laws so you can prevent new credit cards from being opened under your name.

The observance of stricter identity theft solution probably set e-government in America a few years back compared to countries, but considering the dangers of the alternative, not many people are argumentative.

The consumer, the industry, and the government should work hand in hand in order to prevent identity theft. This will also ensure that steps to prevent identity theft taken by each entity will be successful, and that the problems it can bring will be brought to a minimal.

The US government and consumers industries have some of the best identity theft resource center you can find, they offer a lot of resource materials you can download as virtual handbooks usually in PDF format. These are the top 5 websites you can visit for more information on identity theft:

1. The Federal Trade Commission

2. The Social Security Agency

3. The Department of the Treasury

4. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

5. Identity Theft Resource Center

What Identity Theft Resource Center lets you know

Identity theft attacks the confidence many Americans share in the nation’s open yet strong financial systems, this is according to the US Treasury.  This is why consumers together with the industry and the government have prepared a number identity theft resources along a wide variety of topics including:
Ways to prevent identity theft
Common techniques of identity thieves
Signs that you have been targeted or victimized
Numbers to call in case you’ve been victimized
What your rights are
Federal and State laws regarding identity theft

Taking Control – arm yourself with knowledge

The first thing you will learn when you read materials from these identity theft resource centers, is that you have more control than you think.  Identity theft does not exist in a vacuum, and no matter how the thieves target their victims on or off line, you don’t have to be a victim, you just have to be careful enough.

If you can recall, there was an infamous wave of identity theft a few years back, where victims, who went out of their way to keep their personal data secure still fell prey to identity thieves secondary to the government leaving their personal data on public records that was made available online. This was when public records were just starting to be uploaded and that redaction or blacking out of personal data on the online records was relatively new. But nowadays, unless you’ve been convicted of a violent crime, your personal data shouldn’t be on the government online records.

So in following the tips disclosed on the materials available in the identity theft resource center, you can lessen the possibility of being a victim of identity theft if not completely gone then close to it.

If you do many of your transactions online, it is a good idea to visit software vendor website that can provide you with valuable identity theft resources, to better arm yourself against these thieves in the night.

Lastly, the best way you can arm yourself against identity thieves is to arm yourself with knowledge, keep yourself informed. And one of the best ways you can do this is visit the identity theft resource center often.

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.

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.