How to Keep Your Identity Safe While on the Internet

Identity theft is easily done over the Internet because there is no way to actually be able to verify an individual's identity each time a transaction has been made. All that a thief needs is just a sequence of accurate numbers to be able to accomplish this crime. Here is how to keep your identity safe while on the Internet.

Install virus protection software in your computer.

Never let someone you do not know ever near your computer.

Never respond to unsolicited requests that ask you to give out your personal information.

Everyone knows that legitimate companies in which we do business with will never ask anyone to put in any of their personal information and/or passwords.

Always use passwords and never share them with anyone.

Beware of spam and other phishing type of bogus emails. Sometime a spam email will somehow make it into your inbox and then ask you to put in your personal information in exchange for something else.

Empty out your spam folder everyday.

Do a disk cleanup daily.

Never click on any email that ends up in your inbox and it is not from anyone you know.

Before you purchase anything on-line and enter any personal information, always be 100% sure that the website you are at is secure and a real one. Look for a valid SSL certificates on the pages where you visit. SSL stands for Secured Socket Layer and is a type of protocol that was created by Netscape in order to ensure customers browsing the web that their transactions will be safe and secured, because all of the websites that are a secure site will begin with start "https:" and not just http.

Watch carefully and take notice and if any website you are at and are going to make a purchase through begins with "http:" get out fast because this is a bogus website out to get all of your personal information to use for their benefit. One other sure way to know that the website is a safe and secure one is that you should not see any error or a warning icon displayed up in your browser.

Every time you receive any emails in your inbox and you do not know who it is from and then if you click on this email and then go unsubscribe from this one, all you have done now is you have told this person sending this spam is that you are a human and not a computer so now you may start receiving tons of spam delivered to your inbox daily. Just remember to never click on any link that looks suspicious.

Sources:

Personal Experience

IT Specialist in Family