Phishing Protection: Don’t Be A Victim

Have you been a victim of identity theft, or are you afraid to become one? Maybe its because you are always online. You can do almost anything online, do shopping, watch movies and listen to music, you can even bank online. It is said that 50% of identity theft happens via the internet and it’s done mostly thru phishing e-mails scams, but there are a lot of ways you can get phishing protection. You can download free software if you think your browsers protection is not enough. But many of the latest browsers come with their own phishing protection and they are aware of the threat and come up with solutions to help protect their consumers.

However should you be victimized. These 3 steps will direct to the right path.

1.Experian, Equifax or TransUnion are the three major credit bureaus, you can call them. Do this so they can flag your credit documents, this way creditors are aware of your situation and any credit applied under your name will have to be verified. You can also work with them to work out which entries on your credit files are fraudulent and let creditors know that those entries are disputed. This will help you minimize damage to your credit.

2.Call local authorities. File a report with the police and give them all the documents and data they need including disputed accounts. This will aid in proving that you are an identity theft victim.

3.And finally, you need to contact the FTC, no, they will not investigate your case, they will provide you with assistance in order to go to the direction you need to take and you can also file with them a fraud affidavit.

Now, is it over? Of course not, now that you let the authorities know about your situation and you’re on your way to having everything fixed. Now is not the right time to sit down. Steps should be done to make sure this doesn’t occur again. Make sure that you invest in the right commercial identity theft. First, tear up any documents you don’t need and throw them in separate trash bins this ensures that your personal information is safe and secure.

If you are one who spends time over the net, ensure that you update your computer antivirus and anti-malware software and turn on your firewall always. By now you are aware of the dangers of phishing, don’t be a victim of phishing scams, protect yourself and ensure that your browser’s phishing protection is activated or if you’re not sure it may be a good idea to invest in a separate phishing protection software.

Keyloggers: The Threat To Doing Transactions Online

Out of the 2 million Americans that have become victims of internet identity theft roughly 70 percent are users of online banking transactions with their banks usually to 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 commercial identity theft in your computer.

It has become easier to do transactions online but what are we to do when the threat of internet identity theft is becoming more rampant? When you do decide to keep doing paperless transactions online, ensure that you are monitoring all transactions done by all your accounts regularly, at the very least once a week, should be more, so that any activities you fail to recognize can be checked and resolved at the soonest possible time, this can help decrease the risk of identity theft and also ensure that you have commercial identity theft.

Many experts say that e-commerce and e-banking will eventually die down secondary to internet identity theft. 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. Keyloggers are getting installed in personal computers by merely accessing or visiting a website, more and more individuals are becoming afraid to go online, but  to the rest of those who still prefers to use the internet, they will just have to be more vigilant.

It is good to note that even if identity thieves are becoming more ardent American are also becoming more wary of them, only about 5% of people who receive fake emails open them and most just simply don’t bother to open them anymore.And this decision is very wise. 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.

You should know that many have clicked phishing e-mails installed keyloggers on their personal computers and gave out personal information without really knowing they have done so and have become victims of internet identity theft. The thing is not only individuals who become victims to these phishers, even big firms and e-payment processors like paypal have fallen prey to this phishers. Many people have fallen victims, are you one of them.