Would you give your credit card out to just anyone ???
Credit Card Fraud - People- Safe - Internet
If you just met someone; would you give them your social security number, credit card or your other personal information? Still thinking about it; well if you are, it might be a good idea to continue reading the rest of this article. Your credit card, social security number, username, password,, address and even your phone number are all pieces of information that should be kept to only those you trust.
Trust; in this context is defined as a person or entity which you have a basic regard or strong belief that he/she or they will not abuse your personal information. Meaning; it will be obtained for a specific mutual purpose that you authorize such as a purchase, verification or other legal recording. If I asked you this same question, “would you give your credit card number out to just anyone” over the internet; I bet I would get a totally different answer for what you would say.
Unfortunately; many of the people who answered this question, have said yes it’s safe on the computer. Well, remember that most identity fraud happens over internet because people believe that they are safe; when in actuality their not. Oh, their a big company, their in business for years, they are experts in this business, they know more then I do about computers, and many other reasons that would convince you that it’s okay to give or enter your personal information but it’s not. Now when I asked you if it’s okay to give out your personal information in person; you would say, no way. Why? Just like I was saying, many people have a false sense of what security is and what should be trusted. When people are face to face with others they seem to be more aware of the risks and the situation for what it really is, dangerous.
Should I stop buying over the internet, should I never do banking or anything confidential on-line again, what does all this mean; computers are always a mystery to me. These are some great questions but you don’t have to stop using the internet for confidential matters so long as you take some pre-cautions, and look for sites that conduct safe practices which I will explain.
The next time you visit a website and our on the screen that is asking for personal information as described or user names, passwords, account numbers, etc look at bottom right hand corner of the screen and see if you notice a solid key or locked padlock. If you don’t see either of these symbols; do not proceed; it means that the site you are on is not secure and the information being entered can possibly be viewed by an unscrupulous party. Their may be times where you will get a dialog box which says you are attempting to connect to secure site; do you want to continue and this will show up each time if you don’t check the don’t show this box next time. You will also notice that the http:// will immediately change to https:// and the solid lock or solid key should be displayed at the bottom. If this is your first purchase with this site and you are not sure of whom they are; you can also double click on the solid lock or key and view their certificate name. The certificate name should match the website exactly; if it doesn’t that means that the company has obtained a security certificate but it may be under false pretenses and should not be trusted. As part of your browser there are certain root certificates that our installed for example: Verisign, Thawte, Geotrust and many others and it these main are believed be trusted then any certificate issued by these roots is also trusted.
The other major thing people do to subject their personal information to identity fraud is to click on links in an e-mail that seem so real. For example many hackers have studied bank sites, PayPal login site, eBay sites and customized a webpage to look exactly like the one you normally login to. However other are even more creative and actually have you click on link that takes you to your banks home site but then using a specializing technology to capture your information and send it to the hacker. Later on that person logs in to your account and has all your information.
Remember; use the internet as a tool, be cautious, don’t trust the party or website until you feel confident and know their reputable.
