Virtual Identity Theft: Your Worst Nightmare

Posted on June 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Thieves love identity theft crimes because they are almost always committed in a 100% hands off manner. Consider that unlike a robber, an identity thief can do such hands off crimes as swipe your credit card data at their job or root through your mail or trash when no one is in the neighborhood. The thief can even work on a computer thousands of miles away where the thief entices you to give up your most secret personal and financial details.

To help you understand just how many tools the online thief has to rob you blind, let’s look at a few:

Email spam – Spam takes many forms. Sometimes they are trying to sell you something and then hit your credit card many times when you make a purchase. Sometimes, they are trying to run a scam – claiming that you won a prize and need to send $X to collect the prize or asking you to send some cash via Western Union to help a relative in need.
Phishing – This is another email technique where the email is designed to look exactly like a legitimate email from a financial institution or similar entity. It entices you to click on the link in the email and log into your account to fix a problem with it. In reality, when you click on that link and enter your login details, you just gave the thief access to your legitimate account.
Viruses – A computer virus can be installed on your computer – usually through an email attachment you clicked on – that will monitor your keyboard activity and report it to a remote location. This is a good way for the thief to gain access to a variety of passwords for your various accounts. [Note: viruses and similar programs can also be very destructive - deleting all the data on your computer or stealing your email address book to spam all your contacts with junk mail.]
Pharming – This is a very nasty type of virus used by identity thieves. It sits in the background looking at the places that you visit in your web browser. If one of the places (say your bank) is in a list contained within the virus, it will automatically redirect your browser to their look alike page to steal your data. This is much trickier than phishing because it happens when you are just browsing web pages. You are not taking any affirmative action to get to that clone website. It happens totally automatically and without your knowledge.
Online friendships – There are many bad people lurking around the web and they will happily become your friend on social networks and discussion groups. And they are just as much the cons that you can encounter in person or on the telephone. They will sweet talk you right out of your personal details and run right to the bank to cash out your riches.

While this list is by no means complete, it serves as a very solid overview of the ways thieves work in a hands off manner to separate you from your hard earned cash. By being aware of these methods, you can better protect yourself from being taken to the cleaners.