Latest posts by Ali Asjad (see all)
- 3 Reasons Why Identity Theft is a Real Risk - December 7, 2011
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You Are Well-Adjusted
If you are reading this, chances are that you’re either employed or self-employed, make a decent living and know a couple of people. This fact alone puts you at greater risk of losing your identity as compared to, let’s say, someone living in a cabin in Point Barrow, Alaska; and in case you are wondering, here is why:
The probability of your identity getting stolen is directly proportional to how connected you are in real and online world.
Criminals (identity thieves, to be specific) impersonate you with the intention of availing benefits that come with being who you are. The benefits include your credit cards, bank accounts, medical insurance and a great many resources in the form of your personal connections that can be blackmailed or extorted into giving money. Thieves have no business stealing identities of isolated people. They look for normal targets that can easily be googled or found on social networks. If that sounds anything like you, you’re at risk!
You’re Retired… and Stupid
To the identity thieves, there’s nothing better than a prey that’s pliable to the point of naivety, and retired people who borderline on senility are a perfect target. If you don’t fit this profile, you better watch out for your grandma who might be giving out details of her savings account to foreign crooks posing as medical reps selling miracle pills
You Think Jesus Invented the Internet
While internet is a really cool place, it is not of divine origins! If you were born in the so-called Internet Age, chances are that you trust internet blindly. It is not really a “˜for the people by the people’ kind of technology. It is more like “˜made by few for the rest of us’ kind of technology. Editing a typo on Wikipedia does not count as having contributed to the Internet which brings us to our point: Everything you see online, including this awesome piece of text, was created by a handful of us for the rest of the humanity – relatively speaking. While mainstream places such as Apple iTunes store might be safe (to some extent), there are millions of ways to get oneself screwed online. That cool application you downloaded from the Android Market might be collecting your personal information secretly and delivering it periodically to an identity thief.
Think of Identity Theft as an STD: Socially Transmitted Disease. If you poke around a lot on social networks and have a fair share of digital trash buried in electronic landfill sites on the internet, you should get protection. Firewalls, Antivirus, and Spam Filters should be followed by a professional grade ID Theft Protection service and maybe a credit monitoring program as well.
Twitter: dragonblogger
Identity Theft is rampant but it isn’t just the old and the stupid, identity thieves target Social Security numbers of kids where they won’t find out their credit is damaged until they are 18 or older. Parents should routinely request reports or screening for their kids credit accounts to make sure they don’t have problems to deal with as adults.
Justin Germino recently posted..Kindle Fire Round Up and Contest Update
I completely agree with you, Justin.
Child identity theft is a big nuisance. Greater security measures must be in place to secure the future of children.
Hi Justin, I am currently visiting the States and this is exactly what a family who recently who had a baby recently told me. People should be very careful while giving out their SSN for any websites.
Cheolsu recently posted..Myspace Login with Facebook
It is sad to think that kids are at risk but they are just at risk as anyone else. I read somewhere that kids as young as 1 where getting their ID stolen.
I do like your statement ID Theft is like an STD. That had me rolling.
Dawn recently posted..Help Prevent Identity Theft By Recognizing Secure Websites
Twitter: stevescott1
Identity theft is the real deal. People need to protect themselves. About 12 years ago I had my identity stolen and a whole bunch of charges racked up on a credit card I didn’t know about. This wasn’t even an Internet thing, most of the charges went to the address of someone who was a brother of a work associate.
The internet just makes it easier to steal an identity and cover tracks. 12 years later I’m still having issues with my identity once having been stolen. It is well worth the time and effort to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.
Steve recently posted..Information Overload? YOUR Blueprint for Turning Information into Action
Sorry to hear about your case of stolen identity, Steve.
You are absolutely right. Internet, and social networks in particular, have made it easier for thieves to steal identities. We must take extra care to ensure we don’t share sensitive information online.
Ali Asjad recently posted..A Clash of Egos
Twitter: paulas2
Identity theft is something that I am very aware of. Which is the reason why I shred all documentation. That has any financial details about me. I also check my bank account online at least 4 times a week.And I rarely use credit cards.
Paul Profitt recently posted..Do You Believe in Your Alexa Ranking?
Shredding unnecessary documentation is a very good practice, Paul. Dumpster diving is one of ways identity thieves use to gather information about their potential target.
Twitter: tospider
It can happen to anyone not only kids and old.Mostly it happens by virus attacks.Once my email was hacked by a poland hackers
Nipon recently posted..Why you need for making use of online free classified ads?
I think you have a powerful title but week article it attract me at first but soon lost attention sorry
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Great post. It’s very informative and you’re right about many things here. It’s very important that we think about what we share online. We may be thinking we’re talking with a friend of ours on the other end, but you may never know if that friend’s computer was hacked!
Thank you, Sue. I’m glad you found the article useful.
My grandparents actually got a call from someone saying they were me and in jail up in Canada and got them to wire them a few thousand dollars. With the crazy number of people now using the internet it is not surprising that it’s become a more and more dangerous place.
There are actually a number of things that casual or novice internet users need to change about the way they use the internet.
Yup. I agree with you here. Casual and novice internet users need to be given some information on the subject of identity theft.
It’s good to invest on some SSL if you have an e-commerce sites. Will definitely protect your visitors from those identity theft.
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I think some people may think that it can’t or won’t happen to me. I think it can happen to anyone whether it’s related to online activity or offline. There are plenty of ways it can happen offline too. Of course all this technology doesn’t help matters any and probably makes things easier for the people that are involved with identity theft. One thing that bugs me here in the U.S. is every time I go to a doctor they want my social security number. How do I know they are keeping that safe, and that all their employees are honest. I can see proving who I am for insurance purposes, but what about children some of them don’t have a social security number until they are older. At any rate identity theft will likely get worse before it gets better.
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Twitter: It_Freelancing
Hi Ali,
Internet is one of the greatest inventions by human but you need to use it carefully as it can easily cause you identity theft. There are many people who don’t shy to anything from the whole world and chances are more that they’re exposing towards a major threat.
Aanchal recently posted..Web Design India
Excellent post and a timely warning to all. There are hazards a plenty on the information highway and scams are no respecter of age. Many of the older generations who were past 50 when the internet became something most of us take for granted today can be vulnerable, however, youngsters who were born with computers in their cradles can still get caught out. The internet is a vehicle just like a car and if you don’t know what you are doing accidents are inevitable.
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Thank you, Jonathon. I’m glad you found my post useful.
This is why I don’t totally put all my most important personal stuff and assets online, it’s really a risky avenue. I try to keep online stuff for leisure more so than for financial stuff.
Twitter: sahilumatia
Identity thieves are using your personal information in more creative ways than ever before. So its better one should try to memorize all bank a/c numbers, passwords, Credit card details and other details instead of writing them somewhere or saving it online.
Might work for some…
Twitter: robboirun
A friend of mine had their laptop stolen a few years ago which had all her info on it due to filing her taxes on that machine. That’s a good stern lesson to not do your taxes on something that can get lost easily. However now there are ways of having to login to your tax software which is a good security mesure.
Rob recently posted..123 Copy DVD Platinum 2012 Free Giveaway Contest
Yes, that’s another way data can be stolen for the purpose of impersonating someone. You might find this post useful: http://voices.yahoo.com/looking-upgrade-pc-not-dump-10120927.html?cat=15
Ali, As an aside to your post, I am constantly amazed at the amount of information that people put on social networking sites like Facebook and do not adjust their security settings accordingly.All this information is public for all the world to see.”Knowledge is Power” and people should give out their information so easily
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People who give out personally identifiable information on social networks are going to learn about the dangers of identity theft the hard way. I don’t know… maybe the world they live in has unicorns in it and Market Zuckerburg is the fairy godmother or something…
Misspelled ‘Mark’ up there, but Market sounds good as well…
Also, if you play online (paid) games you have ten times more risk because people know you have a credit card and sometimes the game items are also worth money. Recently one game forum I used got hacked because people wanted to steal the user’s passwords.
Percival recently posted..Best MOBA Games 2012
That’s new…
Ali Asjad recently posted..A Clash of Egos
Checking online bank accounts frequently is a good way to ensure that no suspicious charges are being made to credit cards. Of course, having an online banking account in the first place can increase your risk of identity theft. But given all the conveniences, it’s best to practice good old fashioned due diligence and monitor the account(s) often.
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STD, it’s nice hearing that term. You’re right, identity theft is such a major problem. I tend to give common information on my profile but the most personal information such as passwords etc. are kept only for me. Awareness is the key to prevent such thief as well as tight security measures on the account, thanks for sharing the service. I’ll keep it in mind.
Glad to hear that you found my post useful. Hope to create more useful content on this topic in the future.
My friend’s e-mail ha been hacked and of course she received an e-mail from one of her contacts requesting financial aid. Another person received e-mail about copyrights infringement. He was told that he illegaly downloaded films, but can avoid a lawsuit by transferring a specific amount to the account number …
The problem is the problem is that no one is safe, records are being stolen from schools and work places, it’s not lake you can tell your employer that you will not provide your social security number.
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Twitter: @onlinetaxpros
Identity is a very serious risk and not taking it seriously is asking to become one of its victims. Make sure you can verify who you are talking to and don’t EVER give out personal information in emails or over chat. You never know who could be keylogged or malware’d, and even your friends could inadvertently compromise your security. Treat your internet like it is tapped, and you’ll save yourself a lot of grief than if you just go wherever and post whatever. Putting personal information anywhere is Russian Roulette, so be careful out in cyberspace…
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There are a couple tips I didn’t think of here, but think about this: Child ID theft is really becoming a problem because most folks don’t think to put a freeze on their child’s credit report. Think about it!
Isabel
Isabel Darmen recently posted..Dorm Dangers: Living the Dorm Life and Protecting Against Keylogging
We deal with a bunch of start up businesses. Any thoughts on security measures that business should use as an initial layer of protection to help out with these issues? Thanks for the great post.
Kirk recently posted..Construction and TI
Twitter: technology_next
I couldn’t agree more.
The more you are connected to Internet, more are the chances of Identity theft. However, one cannot ignore internet and hence there is a need to stay informed and avoid silly mistakes.
Well written post
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