Monday, August 24, 2009

Your Footprints on the Internet Will Take the Identity Thieves to Your Bank Account!

Most of us will leave some footprints while surfing on the net. And with the powerful search engines like Google, it's easy for identity thieves to find them out. With the help of such footprints, they can reach to your finances easily and will leave you with zero bank balance in no time.

When you submit your resume on-line, enter details about you on social networking sites or put your information on a blog, you leave many trails behind. Internet thieves will be looking out for such details and with such clues they will attack your finances.

Here are some of the unimaginable methods used by these thieves.

1. If someone enters your name and name of your employer on Google, the search engine may show your resume or a blog in which personal information on you can be found. So information like name of your pet, your date of birth or the names of your payments may be available there. This information may prove vital clues to reset the password of your e-mail address!

Try searching your details on the net to find out the results. You may delete unnecessary information on some of the websites.

2. Use your personal e-mail address for all your personal work. You may be running a business for which you may be holding a separate business email ID. Do not use this ID in log-in detail for your bank. Knowing your e-mail address means getting half of the log-in information! A brilliant guess may penetrate your password.

3. Avoid entering personal information on the resumes which you submit on-line. Your residential address and your home phone number may be a necessity while applying for a job but they will provide important clues to identity thieves when you submit an on-line resume. On the basis of these two details, a thief can contact the post office to change your mailing address to some other location.

When you submit your resume on-line, you have to give only limited information. You should write a note that personal information will be available on request.

4. When you use your first and a last name in a profile on a blog, it will do more harm than good. When someone is searching your first and last name, search engines may show this blog!

5. Do not answer on-line security questions giving your answers, which are legitimate. Many sites where a password is required, will ask a security question. If you forget the password any time, you will be asked the security question so that you can access your account. If someone knows answer to such security question, he can easily access your account.

You may not be able to clean all the traces on the Internet but you can take some precautions to protect your identity at the same time. There are agencies providing security against on-line ID theft. They will keep a watch on the Internet to find out whether your personal details like your social security number or your credit card details are fraudulently used anywhere. The charge you some fee but it's always advisable to take such protection.

You get restless and annoyed when you suspect that someone has accessed and misused your details. The financial pain which comes thereafter is unbearable. There are many identity thieves operating all over. You can find many of them on the Internet. How to avoid their trap? Chintamani Abhyankar provides a word of caution.

Chintamani Abhyankar, is an expert in the field of finance and taxation for last 25 years. He has written many books explaining inside secrets of the magic world of finance. His famous eBook Stop donating your money to IRS which is now running in its second edition, provides intricate knowledge and tips on personal finance.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chintamani_Abhyankar

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