With the faster and always on internet connections available today, online identity scams abound and speed and convenience, not security, are the main focus of marketing efforts by most ISP (Internet Service Providers) companies.

Internet users often store their information on their computers and these computers do not always have the adequate protection needed to prevent viruses and spyware programs from infecting their systems. Some of the information that these programs are able to gather are your name, address, social security number, credit card numbers and whatever else you keep stored on your local drive. With this information it is very easy for an identity thief to commit credit card theft by visiting the website of any one credit card company to apply for credit with your information. This applies to everyone from working professionals to stay at home moms, to children, the elderly and even the deceased. If their information is stored on a hard disk and that system is unprotected they are at high risk.

There are millions of identity theft cases reported every year and the majority of them occur online. Internet users are constantly compromising the security of their identities and need to embrace the concept of identity theft prevention and computer security while working online.

What is spyware?

Spyware is the type of software that is typically installed on your system without your knowledge with the sole purpose of changing your computer’s safety feature configurations or collecting your identity information. This is one of the preferred methods for identity thieves to gain access to your personal information. Typically spyware is downloaded and installed on your system quietly when you visit websites that automatically send you this software or it can also be installed along with other applications that you get for free, particularly if they’re pirated.

What exactly does spyware do?

One of the many things spyware can do is provide the necessary information for online thieves to commit identity fraud. Spyware will run as a background process and in a very stealth mode so you don’t know what’s going on. The spyware may be in the form of a keylogger, which records any information you type on your keyboard especially when you’re online paying bills or accessing your bank account. It may also be a program that opens up your computer by disabling firewall and antivirus software, making it easier for a hacker to gain access to your computer.

How to recognize spyware

Because spyware has been around for a very long time, the authors of this type of software have a lot of experience particularly with windows systems which is what spyware software targets, so over the years the software has gotten more sophisticated and it is more difficult to identify on your computer system. But some of the symptoms your computer may begin to show are things like:

• Drastic slow down of your computer or high CPU usage by processes that are not associated with any applications installed on your system.
• The home page on your browser is changed to a website you may never have visited before.
• New program icons appear on your start menu, desktop or systray.
• Random errors pop up on your desktop while you’re running normal operations but the errors are bogus or have little or no explanation in the dialect.
• New toolbars appear on your browse window.
• You notice registry keys that contain URLs to sites you don’t recognize.
• Unexpected redirects to other websites when you click on your bookmarks or type a URL in the address window.
• Your program icons open up other programs that you know were not installed by you.

Protecting your computer system from spyware and identity fraud

The only sure way to battle spyware and protect your self from computer identity theft is to make use of reliable anti-spyware software. Anti-virus software does not take care of spyware, so a separate subscription to anti-spyware is necessary for adequate protection. Just like your virus software, spyware protection software must be updated with new signatures constantly for it to be effective.

Spyware is just another tool that puts your identity in danger and it’s basically another aspect you must address if you want to keep your identity from being stolen. Identity scams can easily happen even if you don’t visit suspicious websites or install pirated software. Using the proper tools to protect your computer system from these malicious programs is an important step in identity theft prevention.

How credit card fraud occurs

Credit fraud can occur online, particularly when a computer system is not protected with antivirus and spyware software that can keep malicious intrusions out. However, online credit fraud is not the main source of the crime, credit card fraud is facilitated to identity theft criminals mostly in the conventional ways. That is, while we run common transactions such as taking money out of the ATM, ordering a pizza over the phone, writing our credit card number on a bill etc. Other ways thieves are able to get direct information about your credit accounts is by redirecting your mail by submitting a change of address card to the post office.

Once a thief gets a hold of your mail, they may or may not use the same accounts you have active, if they have enough information on you, they may instead attempt to open a new account. But most often they’re looking for a credit card number they can use for online transactions. Your credit statements will often contain your credit card number and the expiration date, and although the CVV or CV2 (card verification value) number won’t appear on your statement, not all merchants require it to complete online orders.

Another method used for acquiring consumer information to commit credit fraud is known as “dumpster diving“. This is when thieves dig through your trash to find readable information they can use. This is still an effective method since probably “most” people don’t bother to shred paperwork that contains their personal information. Ripping up these documents does not always destroy the documents completely. Any information they find can be used to attack existing accounts or open up new ones.

Of course the easiest thing for a thief to do is steal the physical credit card. When your wallet or purse are lost or stolen thieves will act quickly to use the credit accounts to make purchases before you report the cards stolen. Carrying the phone numbers of the credit card companies in your wallet won’t do any good should your wallet disappear.

Even if you’re savvy enough to guard your own credit accounts, there are other ways that your account numbers can be exposed and that is through security breaches, which often means that companies you do business with failed to secure your information. This often happens when their computer systems are hacked or their employees commit the credit card fraud by either selling consumer account information or using it themselves.

Credit card fraud protection

Because credit fraud and credit card scams are rather a “when” and not an “if”, there are many ways to establish a fraud protection system to work for you. However, not all credit card fraud protection services work the same.

Your credit card company may extend this service for free depending on the type of account you have, although they typically are only concerned with protecting the credit card account you have with them and not all of your credit accounts, which can be ok if you only have one credit card. Fraud protection is in fact a big business and although it does cost extra in most cases, it is an absolute necessity, especially if the the credit account is very active.

Credit monitoring is one service that can monitor your credit accounts and your credit report, this type of service will alert you when suspicious activities occur on any of your accounts. The goal of this service is to alert you immediately so you can take action before further damage occurs. However, it can not prevent the credit fraud from happening.

Identity theft prevention services are perhaps the most effective means of protection against credit card fraud. These services were established with the intention of providing a complete system of protection that includes not only your credit card accounts but your social security number, and in some services, your medical benefits. This type of protection can in fact stop the fraud before it happens.

How to report credit card fraud

It’s important that if your wallet is lost or stolen you’re able to reach your credit providers and banks to report your cards missing and either suspend or cancel the accounts before they can be used. If you have noticed that your credit statements have stopped arriving to your mail box, or if you notice that there are charges on your credit accounts that you did not make, you must move immediately to report the credit fraud.

To learn how to report credit card fraud and any other type of identity theft, please follow the directions on our “reporting identity theft” article. There you’ll find all the details you need to get the process started.