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Beware
Of Identity Theft Traps
"Phishing" and
"pharming" are two increasingly popular scams
that identity thieves use to steal your personal financial
information.
Phishing
Phishers
try to trick you into providing personal financial information
by sending e-mails that appear to be from legitimate businesses.
They say there has been a problem with your account and
you must re-enter or verify your information or it will
be closed. You may be asked to respond to the e-mail, or
there may be a link to a web site.
Don't
do it. Any information you enter will end up in the hands
of identity thieves. Legitimate businesses will never ask
you to provide personal financial information by e-mail.
Also
never open links in a suspicious e-mail. Sometimes scammers
plant "Trojan Horses" on your computer that record
your keystrokes and send them to thieves.
Pharming
Pharming
is a more sophisticated form of identity theft. Hackers
break into the online address of a legitimate business and
change it so that anyone who types the real address is directed
to a counterfeit site created by the thieves. People enter
their personal information, never suspecting that the site
is fake.
To
protect yourself, look for an icon on the web pages indicating
Secure Socket Layers protection, used by most web sites
that deal in financial transactions. It will usually appear
as a small lock icon in the lower left corner of your browser
window.
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