UK Webmaster SEO Ecommerce Blogs – Webmaster Serve

Minimising Identity Theft

The United States Secret Service estimated that consumers nationwide lose around $745 million to identity theft each year. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the average victim spends around 607 hours and averages $1,000 just to clear their credit records.

Identity thieves will employ a variety of methods to gain access to your information. They may obtain information from businesses or other institutions by:

* Bribing an employee who has access to databases
* Hacking into records
* Conning information out of employees

Once identity thieves have access to your personal information, they may use it to commit a fraud or theft in your name.

How can I tell if I have become a victim of identity theft?

Some signs include:

* Unexplained charges or withdrawals from your financial accounts.
* Bills or other mail stops arriving (the thief may have submitted a change of address).
* A credit application is denied for no apparent reason.
* Debt collectors begin calling about merchandise or services you did not buy.

Your computer can be a goldmine of personal information to an identity thief. To protect yourself and your computer against identity theft you will find the tips below useful.

* Update your virus protection software frequently and set your virus protection software to update automatically.
* Stay up to date with Windows Updates. The Windows Vista/XP operating system can be set to check for updates automatically and download them to your computer when available.
* Do not open files sent to you by strangers, click on hyperlinks, or download programs from people or companies you do not know.
* Use a firewall program, especially if you use a high speed Internet connection like cable or DSL that leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day.
* Provide your personal information through a secured website only. While not fool proof, a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for secure).
* Do not store your financial information on your laptop, unless absolutely necessary.
* Delete all the personal information stored on a computer before disposing of it. Using wipe utility software to overwrite the entire hard drive is recommended.

As with any crime, you can not completely control whether you will become a victim, but you can take steps to minimise your risk by remaining diligent and by minimising outside access to your personal information.