Don't Get Ripped Off!
We know; you grew up with computers and the Internet, so you know what you’re doing online. Nobody can rip you off. You’re young. You’re savvy. You’re hip.
So were a lot of the 9.3 million people in the U.S. who were victims of identity theft in 2006. They weren’t ALL clueless old people who happened to stumble onto the Internet by accident in a public library one day. They were people from every age group, every educational background, every economic situation. Nobody is immune.
Roll your eyes all you want at Yet Another Online Safety Lecture, but it does not pay to let your guard down these days.
Phishing
No legitimate financial institution will EVER send you an email asking you to click on a link and log in to a site to “Verify Your Account Information” or anything else. If there is a real problem, they will call you and ask you to come to a branch office to take care of it.
You also might get urgent emails from eBay or PayPal telling you to click a link to log in and take care of a problem with an online sale. It’s fake. When you click that link, it takes you to a fake site (that looks just like the real thing). You enter your login and password, and now the thieves have access to all your personal information. Bad news.
Personal Identifying Information
MySpace (and similar sites) can be a blast. But you have to be careful about how much information you put out there. You can get hurt both fiscally AND physically.
Your friends (the ones you see in the flesh) know your name. You don’t need everybody on the Internet to know it, too. The safest route is to come up with a good online nickname.
Never, ever, ever (and did we mention, NEVER?) put your full name out there.
What about your hometown and your school? Not a great idea. We’ve all seen Dateline NBC. There are people out there who will try to find you. Once they know what school you go to, it’s not that hard. Especially with that nice hi-res photo you posted on your profile (watch what kind of pics you post, too).
Posting your birthday is a bad idea, too. Your friends know it (your good friends, anyway). Social Security Numbers are based on the location and date of your birth. It’s actually not that difficult for a crook to be able to guess your number if they have this info. Then they have access to everything.
Lottery Scams
Let’s get this straight: You did not win the Canadian Lottery.
You got a letter or an email that said you did? You didn’t. It’s a scam.
Legitimate lotteries work like this:
First, you have to ENTER. There is no such thing as a “email drawing” or a lottery where “no tickets were sold.” Lotteries have tickets. Look inside any gas station. Those are TICKETS they’re selling. They don’t put your email address into a giant HAT.
Second, it is illegal for lotteries to charge a fee to the winners. You don’t pay in advance to get the prize later. They always ask for a “real-sounding” amount, too, like $3017.82 or something.
Third, legitimate lotteries do not use Hotmail or Yahoo email accounts. Would an organization dealing in millions of dollars really be using a free email account?
However, if Ed McMahon shows up outside your house with a big cardboard check and a film crew, let him in.
Junk Mail
This isn’t actually online stuff, but it is a real threat.
Every home should have a shredder for credit card offers and other mail that contains personal information. As nasty as it sounds, there are a lot of criminals who get data by picking through garbage. Tearing mail up by hand isn’t good enough; it can be taped back together.
When you send mail, it’s best to take directly to the post office, instead of leaving it in your box all day and putting up that little red flag that screams, “Hey! There might be checks in here!”
If mail theft is a big problem where you live, it might be time to invest in a P.O. Box.
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