Identity theft can affect anyone.  There is no safe person, not even children, or the dead that can’t fall victim to an identity thief.  There are studies that indicate the thievery is escalating every year and ignorance on the part of the consumer is chief among the reasons why.  There are many sources of information online that a consumer can access to help become educated on the facts and what to do to prevent becoming a victim of identity theft.  Financial institutions are also taking steps to protect their customers.  Something known as multifactor authentication has become more and more prevalent in the online community in order to ensure that the customer alone can access this highly sensitive and personal information on the other side of the firewall.  Multifactor authentication means that the user has to enter many forms of identification in order to access the information.  The idea is that while a thief, especially one that is personally acquainted with the victim might be able to easily guess his or her password.  However, guessing the password as well as coming up with the street he or she grew up on, or the name of his or her first pet is likely to prove a much harder task.  Many sites also include a photo or a series of words that only the user is likely to recognize or know.  It can also keep the user from falling victim to “phishing” emails.  If the user clicks on a link from an email that was sent, and is redirected to a site that looks similar to the financial institution’s site, but does not contain the proper site key or what have you, the user (hopefully) knows not to enter any personal information.  That email he or she received was likely a phishing email.  Criminals set them up to confuse and trick their victims into entering their login information with the criminal could then use to steal their money and their identity.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 30th, 2010 at 6:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.