Identity Theft on the World Wide Web
Many films have been made to illustrate how powerful the internet is. Most of this deals with how a hacker steals files from government agencies to enact some foul world domination plat.
But did you know that identity theft can also take place in your own backyard (on the internet) so to speak?
The World Wide Web has become a festering arena for imposters and criminals. Most of these criminals can gain access to passwords, personal data and identifying information that they can use to acquire the assets of the victim.
Most of the information of the victim can be acquired from several forms of spam email. But there are also some people who operate solicitation websites that promise the users some profits. By doing this, while unbeknownst to the victim, the criminals have gotten their identifying data. Later on, this data will be used against the credibility of the victim.
In some cases, there are some web imposters that use computer technology to get hold of large amounts of personal data. The personal data will give them an idea about the victim’s lifestyle, thus enabling them to spy more. But, how is the internet used to perform identity theft?
The cookie places an important role. It is a piece of text identity, in the form of a script, in which the web server can be able to restore on a certain part of users hard disks. Cookies can have information about the user’s lifestyle and some personal preferences. It can also carry some information about the sites which the user has visited, his or her sent email, an advertisement that has been clicked on, or a purchase that has been made, just to name a few. The criminal uses the cookies as tracking devices. Not only that, it also provides the criminals with precious personal data. A cookie can also serve as the “personal preference” that the criminal uses for the scam.
Most of the internet thieves have software to conduct an official and prohibited access to public data records. By gaining access to the public data records, the criminal can get information about the victim. Normally, criminals access the date of birth, surname, maiden name, address, social security number and much more.
Aside from the public database, most of the thieves use the web linkages. The criminals just type in some sort of social security numbers and th nhe net will connect them into several search engines. According to investigations done, there are almost 95 identity sites that pop up. Basically the criminal simply clicks on a certain person’s file. After that, the criminal can view all of the possible identification. There are also some criminals that create fake websites. If a viewer subscribes to that particular website, his personal data will be easily transferred into the database of the criminals.
Also take note, that any machine in a public capacity is distributed to multiple users. With online purchasing, the merchandise will leave a track cookie on the machine. If somebody finds that script, he could later try to acquire something from the merchant using the original account.
On the other hand, there are also some web hackers that use encryption software. This software is applicable in mixing card numbers when doing their operation. The criminal can easily figure out the victim’s credit card number. Keep in mind that sending a card pin number over an internet online store is not completely safe. Encryption happens only when the viewer finds a shopping site. The site will show a padlock icon in the lower corner of the web browser.
Most of the internet identity theft involves criminals that want to maneuver someone’s personal account. Most of these criminals have the intention of spending money and taking the victim’s identity to afford them some new purchasing options. For instance, many of the criminals have lost thier own good credit and do not have the capacity to take out a loan, so they’ll get some one else’s account to use for an internet transaction.
With the advent of internet fraudulence, identity theft has already become a proficiently beneficial industry. Criminals, hackers and perpetrators have easier and quicker access to classified data around the globe. In order to prevent this from happening, each computer user must be very careful in transacting business in the Web. Aside from that, accessing websites using a high-speed broadband is helpful. This service makes the computer flexible against hacking and theft.
Category: Identity Theft