Safe Shopping Online Can Help Avoid Identity Theft!
Online Shopping offers great benefits for its users that are not available in a regular brick and mortar establishment. Along with these benefits of 24/7 shopping from any computer and countless e-only deals comes numerous risks. Identity theft is a real risk while shopping online that cannot be overlooked.
ID theft in the internet age has changed the ways that thieves steal your information. Nowadays it is much easier for criminals to get your important info that will compromise your identity. Over 70% of ID theft is committed on the internet. But how are these people getting important numbers like bank accounts and credit card numbers right off of your home computer? There are a few ways that scammers take advantage of the internet:
- Computer Viruses harvest your information when you shop online!
- Hackers get into accounts online and steal your accounts and numbers.
- Fake sites ask for personal information from you and record it for later use.
The #1 way that scammers acquire information used to steal ID’s is through computer viruses. These computer viruses will run on your computer, unknowingly to you, and record your keystrokes when you are entering anything into a website. That means that they will record all of your account usernames, passwords, or important numbers will be recorded by a bot and then sent off through a ping on the internet for someone to either sell or use.
How do I know if I have a computer Virus installed on my PC?
There is only one way to know for sure, and that is to scan your computer with a top level anti-spyware/virus software. These types of programs are built to help you manage your pc security online proactively by running automatic scans and keeping an up to date database of threats to remove.
The best thing about a program like this is that you should never have to worry about a virus again once you have installed and set it up. Spyware Doctor is very highly rated amongst tech professionals. Here is a Spyware Doctor Review for some more info.
Tips for Safe Shopping online:
- Install a good antispyware/virus program like Spyware Doctor and remove any viruses or worms
- Check for a padlock in your browser when you get to a screen that requires your information
- Use a credit card instead of a debit card for online shopping, they have better fraud protection
- If a site doesn’t seem reputable, don’t buy anything. There are lots of places to shop on the internet, it is best to stick to the sites that you know are legitimate.
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