Tips on protecting your identity online
How do you keep your personal information private when you go online?
It's something you always need to be aware of every time you hop on the Internet.
Cyberspace is filled with predators. They want to snag your personal information - account numbers and passwords - in order to steal your money and possibly your identity.
The Internet is a wonderful tool, but you've got to be extremely careful or the bad guys will get you.
Debra Berlyn, director of the Consumer Privacy Awareness Project, says it's not just kids who are in danger.
"Today increasingly older adults adults are going online. It's a wonderful tool. We want to encourage everyone to be online, but there are some things we need to be aware of when we do go onto the Internet," she said.
Berlyn says you should never divulge your personal information via e-mail, even if the request looks to be legitimate.
"(E-mails) asking for your financial information, your bank account, your social security number, your password -- that sort of information, you should never respond to that," she said.
Phishing e-mail are one way scammers target consumers. These e-mails look like it's from a legitimate source, and it says administrators are having problems.
One such e-mail Berlyn received from someone claiming to be Yahoo said she had to "confirm your e-mail by filing out your login info below... or your account will be suspended within in 24 hours for security reasons."
Notice the pressure and sense of urgency in the e-mail that's urging the recipient to act now, without thinking.
Berlyn says she's been receiving this e-mail regularly, about every two weeks.
"And the first time I received this, I was skeptical. And I responded and said, 'Why are you sending me this? Could you please tell me why you're going to close my account?'" she said. "Of course they never responded, and I never sent them the information."
Consider this phishing e-mail I received. It looked like it's from Bank of America, and said my banking account is blocked because of security concerns. To get things going again, I'd need to click the link and provide my personal information. Funny thing: I don't have a Bank of America account.
Berlyn worries that an older individual who may be a novice user of the Internet could falll prey to these phishing e-mails.
"First of all, you should have a healthy skeptical when you receive any kind of e-mail asking for personal information. You should look very carefully. Often times there are grammatical errors, misspellings because these are done very quickly to try to capture this information from consumers.
"Never respond with the information they're requesting. Ask them questions first, as I did. Ask them why they're asking for the information. If it's not valid, they're never going to respond," she said.
For more information:
Consumer Guide to Online Privacy
It's something you always need to be aware of every time you hop on the Internet.
Cyberspace is filled with predators. They want to snag your personal information - account numbers and passwords - in order to steal your money and possibly your identity.
The Internet is a wonderful tool, but you've got to be extremely careful or the bad guys will get you.
Debra Berlyn, director of the Consumer Privacy Awareness Project, says it's not just kids who are in danger.
"Today increasingly older adults adults are going online. It's a wonderful tool. We want to encourage everyone to be online, but there are some things we need to be aware of when we do go onto the Internet," she said.
Berlyn says you should never divulge your personal information via e-mail, even if the request looks to be legitimate.
"(E-mails) asking for your financial information, your bank account, your social security number, your password -- that sort of information, you should never respond to that," she said.
Phishing e-mail are one way scammers target consumers. These e-mails look like it's from a legitimate source, and it says administrators are having problems.
One such e-mail Berlyn received from someone claiming to be Yahoo said she had to "confirm your e-mail by filing out your login info below... or your account will be suspended within in 24 hours for security reasons."
Notice the pressure and sense of urgency in the e-mail that's urging the recipient to act now, without thinking.
Berlyn says she's been receiving this e-mail regularly, about every two weeks.
"And the first time I received this, I was skeptical. And I responded and said, 'Why are you sending me this? Could you please tell me why you're going to close my account?'" she said. "Of course they never responded, and I never sent them the information."
Consider this phishing e-mail I received. It looked like it's from Bank of America, and said my banking account is blocked because of security concerns. To get things going again, I'd need to click the link and provide my personal information. Funny thing: I don't have a Bank of America account.
Berlyn worries that an older individual who may be a novice user of the Internet could falll prey to these phishing e-mails.
"First of all, you should have a healthy skeptical when you receive any kind of e-mail asking for personal information. You should look very carefully. Often times there are grammatical errors, misspellings because these are done very quickly to try to capture this information from consumers.
"Never respond with the information they're requesting. Ask them questions first, as I did. Ask them why they're asking for the information. If it's not valid, they're never going to respond," she said.
For more information:
Consumer Guide to Online Privacy