Staying away from identity theft, Part 2

These days, where discovering that you are a victim of identity theft can take nearly a year and repairing the damage can take a couple of years, one has to be cautious when engaging in business on the Web. Online commerce, banking and handling of mutual funds and other investment choices each make opportunities for crooks to steal your important personal information. The huge problem of identity theft and credit theft continues to increase, particularly as increasing numbers of people are doing business online. Once they have your personal information, a thief can open charge accounts in your name, buy a home, buy cars or trucks and clean out your checking or savings accounts.

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Below are a number of suggestions that will help you protect your financial information when using the Web and will protect you from becoming an an identity or credit theft victim.

• Never use a public computer, such as one at a school or library, to access your financial Institutions. Your username or password may be cached on a public PC, allowing anybody who uses the computer after you to access the site.
• Use good, lengthy passwords. Any password that is more than ten characters in length will help guard you on the Web. Although it is often suggested that you use a combination of letters and numbers, such as abc3de4fg, to create a good password, it is much more secure and easier to remember just to use something longer. A good password does not use names of children or pets and no birth dates or phone numbers.

• Examine the privacy rules of the sites that you frequent to make sure that they will not disclose, sell or share your personal information.
• Who would do business with a person who sends them unsolicited e-mail? Spam may work, but that doesn't mean that you have to reply to it. Ignore spam, and get a high quality electronic mail filter so that you do not have to encounter it in the first place. You would be surprised at the power of unsolicited e-mail; one of the reasons individuals send unsolicited e-mail in the first place is because it works. Do not do business with a stranger that solicits your business from spam e-mail or a popup window that you happen upon while Surfing the Web.
• Never respond to unsolicited e-mail that requests financial information. Unsolicited messages asking for financial information are usually forged and are called "phishing" expeditions.
• Get a high quality firewall and antivirus programs. A firewall, either a software or hardware version, will guard your PC from being controlled by a third party without your knowledge. Clever PC opportunists can actually make off with files from your computer system if it isn't properly protected. If you have high speed access to the Web, you likely already have a firewall, but it may be configured for minimal protection by default.

A tiny amount of paying attention can go a long way towards protecting you from a financial crime. The thieves who would like to acquire your personal information are rather clever and constantly coming up with better ways to steal things, so you must remain observant. By paying attention to this simple advice, you should be able to protect yourself from a lot of online crime.