With the internet readily available to everyone and almost everyone using email and paying their bills online, there are more identity thieves using email as a way to steal your personal financial information.  These scammers or identity thieves will send thousands an email “claiming” to be from a reputable company hoping to catch someone that is vulnerable enough to fall for their scam.  In return these identity thieves or scammers hope this person will respond to the fraudulent email with credit card numbers, passwords, bank account information or any other sensitive personal information that the email is requesting.

The reason that some people fall for these fraudulent email scams is that the identity thieves will copy the banners and company logos of the actual company they are claiming to represent.  They may use a scam that claims these particular companies’ security procedures have changed or that they need to either validate or update your credit card or bank account information.  In the email there will usually be a link for you to click on to take you to the company website.

If you do click on the link you are taken to a website that looks like the company that they are pretending to be and once they get your information they will use it to get credit or to make purchases of services or products.
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There are ads on the internet and some work at home sites advertising for people to sell items on e-Bay.  Some may be legitimate but most of them are scams.  Why do these people need you to sell for them on e-Bay and pay you a fee when they could do it themselves and keep all the profit from the sale?  The reason is that this person does not really have anything to sell except for a scam.

When you look at these ads, they want you to not only have an open e-Bay account but also a PayPal account without any limitations.  Some even put in their advertisements that they are looking for hard working, honest people.  When you answer their ad they will send you the information of what they want you to see, how much you get to keep as a fee which may include the amount that e-Bay charges you for listing the items.

They will then send you the information about the item that you are to advertise for sale, a picture or two of the item, how and where they want it listed on e-Bay and their PayPal address to send the money to.  Once you have it all set up on e-Bay you have to send the link to the person you are selling the item for so they can make sure that it is done correctly.
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Phishing scams can go by many different names but phishing is the most common name used.  There are over a hundred different scams in this category but you can avoid being trapped into one of these scams by using a few common-sense rules.

Financial Organizations

The first, and most important, rule to remember is that these types of organizations will not contact you by email if they need to discuss financial matters.  You may get an e-mail asking you to apply for a loan with a certain financial institution, or use a certain investment firm, but the actual legitimate business is stone done in person, on the phone, and fax.  Never respond to an e=mail from a financial institution with an e-mail containing personal information.

Phone

Do not give your credit card number or personal information over the phone.  The only exceptions to the rule are if the call is originated by you, you know the person on the other end, and you feel safe giving this information over the phone.  If you are not certain then ask for a number for you to call them back.  Before you call the number they gave you, call the business they say they represent and ask if that person works for them, and if necessary tell the business why you are asking.  If they say yes, they do work there make sure that you feel confident that your information is going where it should go to.  If the person does not work there, you have a phone number to give to the local law enforcement force to track down the criminal.

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Identity theft scams continue to sprout and flourish on the Internet. One of the most common identity theft scam is where a site sells items that are in high demand at a measly cost. In fact, it’s so low, even the manufacturer’s website will list a higher price.

Often times, you are told to pay nothing, until you receive the goods. Meanwhile, the scammer uses your name and a credit card number belonging to someone else, to buy the item at a totally legitimate website.

Once you’re notified the item’s been shipped, you’ll either transfer payment directly to the scammer, or authorize your credit card to be billed. But what you’ll not know is that the scammer has now framed you – while he gets away scot free with all of your money, he’s made sure you’ll be in receipt of merchandise that’s been stolen.

Another identity theft scam that you need to be wary of is this – someone you’ve never heard of before will get in touch with you via email, claiming to be from PayPal, Ebay, your credit card company or your internet service provider.

The scammer will send you an email stating that your account details need verifying, and give you various reasons why you need to do so. For example, they’d either claim that their database has crashed, or their files were hacked into, or that someone has attempted to steal your personal details……so they’d like to verify your information to protect your account.

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Identity thieves steal your personal data because they want people to think they’re you.

They want to use your good reputation to buy expensive things on credit and get themselves out of trouble when they get arrested.

Creditors will give them credit because you have a good credit rating and lots of assets.  The police will let them off because you don’t have a criminal record (yet).

The personal data they need varies.  It includes your name, address, phone number, SSN, email address, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and any passwords or pin numbers.  They don’t need it all, but the more they have, the less difficulty they’ll find impersonating you.

They have many different ways to gather this data.  Lew Reed — see his excellent presentation on identity theft at http://www.myidfix.com/whatidtheft_files/frame.htm – notes that there are low tech and high tech ways to get this information.

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