Online Identify Theft More Common Than You May Think

It's not too surprising to note that online identity theft is
actually a much worse problem than you might think. The question
becomes what do you do to protect yourself?

Being aware of what is going on while you are online is crucial to
being protected against those who would vampire your identity. Spammers
nab your email and find out lots of information on you just by plugging
your email address into Google.

Then of course, there are the phishing schemes designed to get you
to innocently cough up items like your bank account information, or
your PayPal account information. That's one of the latest phishing
schemes, a note supposedly from PayPal about your account being frozen
because allegedly some "unauthorized third party accessed your account
three months ago and transferred funds."

You do have to give spammers and pfhishers some credit for their
ingenuity. One wonders how successful they may be if they attempted to
get money the legitimate way instead of through backdoor chicanery?

Despite the dangers of being online and potentially having your
identity stolen, protecting yourself is a bit like being smart offline.
You wouldn't just hand your bank account number or PIN over to any Tom,
Dick or Harriet in the offline world, so why would you do that online?
This dilemma all boils down to self-protection. This doesn't mean you
need to be totally paranoid about it, but there are some things you
should look for before you divulge certain information.

Prior to clicking that YES button to buy something, check the bottom
of your IE window for a gold lock icon. If you see it, good stuff, you
are in a highly secure area. If you don't see that icon, DO NOT click
that yes button, instead call the company if they have a contact phone
number listed online.

Look for signs that your transaction is being processed by a secured
socket layer (SSL) and encrypted. You will see claims on the site
boasting payments are processed by SSL. Many of the larger online
retailers have this service; for example, PayPal, eBay, etc. One other
thing you should watch for is the address bar in your browser that
shows where you are when you are online (the site address). Look for
the designation for the address to start with "https" (the "s" means
secure) rather than the usual "http".

There are ways to legally deal with people who have stolen your
identity online, but realize that they need to be caught and charged
first in order for that to happen. If you have had your identity stolen
online and charges have resulted, speak to a competent lawyer to find
out how to proceed.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and
has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a
Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense
and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.