It’s not just hackers you have to worry about. In fact, a lot of fraud and identity theft is caused by employees and other insiders.
Personal Information is the New Currency
Today we transact by revealing information about who we are, how to contact us, where we live and our payment accounts. And we’re often asked to create usernames and passwords to complete a transaction successfully.
Each time you register at a web site, make a purchase or pay a bill online,
your personal information is revealed and stored in a database. Suddenly
everything is at risk – your username, password, name, billing address, credit card, phone number, email address and more.
Worse yet, every time you transact online you put yourself at greater risk of losing control of your own identity and personal information. The consequences can be disastrous, identity theft is very difficult to resolve, and the fallout can last for years. The dangers are everywhere – and they’re growing daily. Here are just a few of them:
Inside Jobs
It’s not just hackers you have to worry about. In fact, fraud and identity theft is very often caused by employees and other insiders with access to the databases where your personal information is stored. They may lose it, steal it or sell it, but the result is always the same – once your information is compromised, your identity is at risk.
In fact, the ITRC (Identity Theft Resource Center) reports that over 85% of credit card fraud and identity theft cases are “inside jobs” that occur after your transaction is completed. You can’t stop them from victimizing others, but you can protect yourself by using a Secure Payment Agent (SPA) like Shop Shield to replace ALL your personal information with the anonymous identity it provides, so you don’t leave a trace.
The Data Breach
This refers to when a data storage center is broken into via the Internet by hackers, or an employee loses data, such as a stolen laptop containing information about millions of accounts - possibly yours. Data breaches are occurring more and more frequently (up 49% in 2008), and are now the fastest growing source of credit card fraud and identity theft worldwide.
Appending Stolen Records
Criminals are able to buy, sell or trade stolen information to allow others to match your name, address and credit card number with your date of birth and possibly even your social security number. Once your information is matched up, they can commit credit card fraud, open new accounts in your name, and even obtain loans.
Selling ‘You’
These days, information is power. And personal information is the key to effective marketing and effective scamming. Companies and criminals alike pay good money to get comprehensive information on consumers, and these lists are commonly traded, sold and resold on a regular basis. You never know who’s got the goods on you.
Spam
Last year, almost 200 billion spam messages were sent per day, accounting for fully 70% of all email traffic. No wonder our inboxes are full! Many spammers are located offshore, beyond the reach of the law. The worst offenders spoof the email addresses of other people you may know, pretending to then send their spam messages from that location. You don’t want spam. And you don’t want people to think you’re sending it, just because somebody else hijacked your email address.
