Stealing someone’s vital personal information and impersonating them with the motive of personal gain (in most pecuniary gains) is the idea behind Identity theft.

Reliance on Internet in our daily lives

With the unprecedented dependence on Internet today for our everyday activities encompassing e-commerce, sports, social networking, we are witnessing an equal surge in the volume of high-tech fraud in our cyber space including Identity Theft.

Statistics

Identity crimes or impersonation committed online has become a common phenomenon. U.S Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicates that an estimated 10 million Americans are affected every year. Reports also suggest that Web site based crime-ware and malware programs used for stealing personal information and enterprise data have jumped to nearly 827 percent from January 2008. This, needless to say, warns us to be more vigilant.

Consequences and types of ID Theft

The consequences of id theft depend on the types of crimes being perpetrated. With the data stolen from someone, ID thieves can create bogus financial accounts while making you incur expenses in your credit card account thereby rendering you with a very bad credit rating. Tampering your personal data with criminal track records, sending out emails from your email accounts to your friends with make believe heart-rending stories to seek monetary helps are some of the modus operandi they resort to. Besides, manipulation of your medical records to avail welfare benefits is also common.

Measures to mitigate ID theft

In today’s technology driven society, our immunity towards such cyber crime are not guaranteed no matter what security measures we adopt.  However, this does not mean we cannot mitigate it.  While participating in a social networking forum avoid dumping all your contact details. Avoid inviting people you hardly know. Be wary of unsolicited emails asking for information like bank account or social security number. Do not open file attachment with long file names where you cannot see the file format. Be careful with  .exe, .vbs, .dll file extension unless you are sure of its content. It may be rogue software on the prowl looking for a possible prey i.e. you.

Also, for credit protection constantly monitor your credit card or bank account records. It is also advisable to shred all personal papers like your credit card statements, phone bills before being disposed so that it does not reveal any clues. Be careful with online surveys, some may trick you to provide password as some sort of verification. Invest in installing reliable antivirus on your computer and keep updating on a regular basis. Above all, stay informed.

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