What’s identity theft?
Your identity and your reputation are precious assets and it’s very important to look after them at all times when you’re online.
If criminals get hold of your personal details they can use them to
open your bank accounts and get credit cards, loans, state benefits and
documents such as passports and driving licences in your name. They can
be very clever with the tricks they use too, with all sorts of online
scams to trick you into sharing information. Sometimes they even rifle
through bins looking for receipts and other documents to access your
personal details.
And once they’ve got your details, they can effectively steal your
online identity. To stop that happening, you need to know how to protect
yourself, and what to do if identity theft happens to you.
Protecting your personal information
Be very careful about the personal information you share online.
There’s no delete button on the internet – if you publish personal
information like your date of birth, address or dates when you’re going
on holiday, even if you delete it later, you don’t know who might have
seen it, saved it, or used it. Think twice before publishing something
you might later regret.
That’s why you should be careful about sharing information on social
networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as your blog or
personal website. Identity thieves can piece together your identity from
several sources to get the full story.
Fortunately, it’s not difficult to protect yourself, so long as you know what to do. Here are a few ideas:
Don’t publish the details of this special email account to friends or on social networking sites or use it for general shopping sites. Use a different password, and for extra security, use a different email host from your main account.
It’s more difficult to remember different passwords for different
sites, but it’s definitely worth the effort. For example, if there’s a
security breach at your social networking site, and criminals get access
to your password, they’ll be free to try using it on your other
accounts, like your bank.
3. Consider password manager software or online data safes
To help you keep your passwords, user IDs and other sensitive
information safe somewhere other than in your head (where you might
forget it) or written down (where anyone can find it), consider using
password manager software or an online data safe. Many types of
security and anti-virus software (such as Kaspersky PURE, Norton and
McAfee) include a password manager. You can store all your user
log-in IDs and passwords within the software, and the password manager
software itself is protected by an encrypted password. So as long as you
remember the code to decrypt the password manager, you don’t need to
remember all the others.
Online data safes work in a similar way – all the information you
choose to save is encrypted and compressed, then stored securely online,
protected by a single encrypted code.
4. Look for the padlock symbol
When you use a website that asks for sensitive personal information
(address, phone number, bank details etc) always look for the padlock
symbol that should be displayed. This means that the website is
encrypting the internet connection – if it’s not there, then don’t fill
in any forms asking you for personal information.
5. Beware of unsolicited emails
Don’t open unsolicited emails as they can contain links to malware,
computer code that can infect your computer. If you do open one by
mistake, don’t click on any links or reply it.
6. Shred confidential waste
To stop criminals stealing confidential information from your
dustbin, make sure you shred or make unreadable anything with your
address, bank details or other personal information before you throw it
away or recycle it
More
Protect yourself against identity theft with our Knowthenet guides: