Identity theft

Till today the world has been changing, people change ,technology changes work becomes much more organized and structured , Identity is a must to survive here for just about anything , and that’s how we identify each other and it also portrays what kind of person you are in the society.
What if your identity is misused by another? Today we could not even get a place to live without a proper identification.

Well for some people there is always an easy way to earn money and an easy way to success, they use others ,or break the law by cheating innocent people and even the government with regard to identification and documentation. There are millions out there who travel around the world cheating people in but carrying the identity of an innocent person , so each day many innocent people get into trouble with such people who cheat using their name.

Identity theft is very common on the internet , people forge signatures and hack accounts to have access to money , documentation and private content , they completely ruin the life of the public , Banks were the most affected by such identity thieves , they appear as another person and fool the authorities

Fake passports and licenses are another vast area where identity theft takes place
And by this they completely cheat the government authorities by paying taxes to get such legal documents. The internet is infested with such cheats who create fake accounts , identification cards or profiles to have access to just about anything they need , mostly money. The government has imposed new methods of tracking down such people who cheat, but yet they find various other sources out and cheat the public. People also sell fake products and services online using a well reputed name or an identity and finally the company or the individual gets held up for such activities, in this way not only do they benefit from cheating others, they also put innocent people into trouble.

What are the forms and where do they occur?

Identity theft happens mostly in financial sector, banks and other institutions get cheated off large amount of money by someone who uses the identity of another person who has access to the bank. Over the internet people hack into accounts of banks to transfer money illegally from another person’s account. Government and other public places where identity is required to have access to something or even travel out of the country, which is a serious criminal offence.

Online fraud

As most of us internet users know that the internet is flooded with thousands of viruses , threats and spam that causes trouble to people , do you realise that there are people out there who can be more painful that these viruses and threats? Yes , have you ever come across people who cheat innocent internet users ? especially people who are new to the internet get carried away and fall for such threats and traps, there are cases of people being cheated of money , work , personal data , photo’s , software’s, products and many other such problems keep happening each day.

Who does this?

Well these people may be a group of unemployed people who seek easy money and things by cheating people of it, they do not have sympathy for the other users whom they cheat , they just want to benefit out of you , some find entertainment and take joy in cheating people.

There are so many ways where one can come across internet fraud, in cases people who eagerly look for internet and online jobs sitting at home fall victims to them , they may be elderly retired people trying to make some money in their time, the frauds post ads, messages and mails to commonly visited communities and social networks , innocent people find the offer appealing and willingly register by transferring some money as registration fee , later they don’t hear from the people and realise that they had gotten cheated .

There are also people who get friendly to you in chat rooms ask you for private data information , addresses and more other info , if you had realised that millions of pornographic websites use pictures that they derive from social networks or by cheating people , they merge and morph them to their website , which is quite shocking and something to be careful about.

How to deal with this?

Do not keep in touch with people in chat rooms who may seem suspicious or who seem to be too kind , because that’s just a disguise and you may not know what you’re getting into. Never upload Pictures on sites that you don not trust, do not register and use your credit card on any website until you know it is 100% safe to do so. Ignore mails and message that seem really attractive and offer you money , prices , easy jobs and such messages , they only fool you and do nothing else.

Internet safety

We all love internet as it is a blessing and we could have access to just about anything we want be it information , work reference , homework , contacts , stay in touch with our near and dear ones and the list goes on and on. The is a wonderful place for entertainment and today one can sit for hours in front of a computer or a notebook surfing and coming across new stuff and places to visit.

However , little do we realise that the internet can bring us harm, threats and can sometimes lead to problems even personal problems , there are millions out there who seek joy and fun in causing a nuisance to others by sending threatening mails and messages , demanding , blackmailing , fraud , cheating and various other activities that just gets people worked up and tensed.

We’ll the way out of such people and groups is to just ignore them, they will fade away , rather that revert to any of their messages or mails , some of these people can be really nice to you and gain your trust , the last thing you would want to do on the internet is to trust someone you don’t know of . There are millions of people who cheat surfers into deriving personal information out of you for many purposes , some even go upto the extent of making you believe in them lying to you and asking for money . Some time back there was this mail which was flooding the internet , it was making people believe that they had won a lottery and promising them a huge sum of money , later they ask you to transfer a charge towards delivery of your price money. A lot of people out there who are new to the internet fall for this and transfer the money thinking that its worth spending this amount to receive a fortune. And for those unlucky people , it turns out that the person was just a fraud and he had tricked you into this. There a still many more forms of this case you may not know , its always better to stay anonymous while surfing .

Things you shouldn’t be doing

1. Never give out personal information to just about anyone you meet or any site that asks for it.
2. Upload pictures of yourself on social communities at your own risk.
3. Never reveal your true identity in chat rooms.
4. And do not get too personal into talking about your life , family where you live and such information to random people who chat with you.
5. Ignore messages that may be offensive to you , you lose nothing by it, its just some disturbed person who seeks attention , so do not pick a fight with anyone if you get an offensive mail. The best thing you can do is to leave it there.
6. Do not upload confidential content on sites like rapidshare and other file transfer websites. You may not know who else is downloading your files.
   
   Stay safe and connected, enjoy the benefits form the internet while keeping your eyes open to such problems.