Computer Identity Theft - Emails And Confidence Tricksters
As more and more people get personal computers and an internet connection the potential for identity theft increases. Olden day identity theft might have involved going through someone's garbage looking for personal details like their social security or credit card numbers. Today, with the help of a computer and some fake email ids, an identity thief can gain access to the same information. This can be done on a worldwide scale and opens up the potential of such a crime. In fact, identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the past few years.
At first glance, you may think that computer identity theft is a high tech crime that is perpetrated by some evil genius or misanthropic computer nerd but the reality is that most of it is very simple. Most computer identity theft is a simple confidence trick that uses a number of techniques that understand human nature.
So, the most common types of identity theft target an individuals fear or greed. These are two very powerful emotions that will make people take action. Once these emotions are triggered, the identity theft simply tells the potential victim what to do.
A fear that many people have when they use a computer and the internet is that they may be at risk to identity theft. They understand the potential risk and think that the theft may involve hacking into their computer. Although they don't know exactly how this might happen they try to remain vigilant. This fear is indulged and amplified by identity theft criminals. So when an email arrives that mentions that your bank account was hacked into, all the alarm bells go off. The email suggests you change your password immediately.
The immediate reaction is "what has happened to my account ?" or "has money been taken out ?". The email says that you should login to your account and change the password. Conveniently, this can be done by filling out the login details supplied in the email.
Some of these emails are quite cunning. They look incredibly genuine. The logo, the header or the masthead of the email looks genuine. The wording in the email may sound very official. They can be extremely convincing, especially if you happen to have just used your online bank account the other day. However a closer examination of the email might reveal that it is not all that it claims to be. For instance, the sending email id might be from a free email source like yahoo or hotmail. It will not look like an official bank email id. The name of the person signing off the email may also be unconvincing.
This is the scenario of the common phishing scam. An identity theft works to gain your trust or confidence by presenting you with an official looking document or email. Once they have gained your trust they present a problem and an effective way of solving this problem. Many people will take the bait and act on the problem. Once the thief has your personal details they can do all sorts of fraudulent activities.
The common practice for most companies is never to ask for personal details via an email. If you receive anything like this it is a hoax and you are best advised to delete it. If a website does ask for personal information it should be secure. A secure website will have a lock logo on it which will lead to information about how they secure their website. Also the name of the particular web page will start with a 'https'.
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