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by: AdrianFletcher
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As more homes get hooked up to the internet the potential for identity theft increases. In previous years, your identity might be compromised because you threw out personal information in the trash. A potential identity thief may go through your trash looking for such information and then use it for illegal purposes. nowadays, this can be done with a computer and the sending of fraudulent emails. The crime of identity theft is increasing at a massive rate because this is so easy to do and opens up the entire world to this kind of scam.

At first glance, you may think that computer identity theft is a high tech crime that is perpetrated by some evil genius or misanthropic computer nerd but the reality is that most of it is very simple. Most computer identity theft is a simple confidence trick that uses a number of techniques that understand human nature.

So, by far the most common form of identity theft relies on triggering a persons fear or greed. These two emotions are incredibly strong for many people and will compel them to take some kind of action. Once these emotions are raised, the identity theft simply tells the potential victim what needs to be done to rectify the situation and gives them an easy way to do this.

Many people that use the internet have some awareness of computer hackers and how they try to gain access to personal information. They try to remain wary of any strange things going on when their computers are running and install firewalls and anti virus software. So when they get an email from their bank saying that their bank account was hacked into, this fear is realized. The email goes on to say that you must enter login to your account to change your password immediately.

After the initial shock you begin to wonder what has happened to the account - has money been taken out ? You first reaction is to login to your account and see what the damage might be. This is also the advice you will get in the email and they also make it convenient for you to login to your account by providing a login box below the letter.

Some of these emails are quite cunning. They look incredibly genuine. The logo, the header or the masthead of the email looks genuine. The wording in the email may sound very official. They can be extremely convincing, especially if you happen to have just used your online bank account the other day. However a closer examination of the email might reveal that it is not all that it claims to be. For instance, the sending email id might be from a free email source like yahoo or hotmail. It will not look like an official bank email id. The name of the person signing off the email may also be unconvincing.

This is how the so called phishing scam works. The thief will win your trust by presenting a genuine looking, official sounding email. This will highlight an urgent problem that needs to be fixed. It gives you a means to fix this problem quickly and with the minimum amount of pain. Once an identity thief has your details, then all sorts of fraudulent activities can be conducted under your name.

The common practice for most companies is never to ask for personal details via an email. If you receive anything like this it is a hoax and you are best advised to delete it. If a website does ask for personal information it should be secure. A secure website will have a lock logo on it which will lead to information about how they secure their website. Also the name of the particular web page will start with a 'https'.

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Get more advice on ways to prevent identity theft and what makes the best home paper shredder.

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