So... it feels like news networks and websites will always have something to talk about... and that's identify theft. Has anyone ever been a victim of this? Either by hacking, phishing, or a trojan virus? I once had money stolen from my account, but I actually have no idea how it happened. I just called my bank and they refunded it without much fuss. I'd be interested to know how much identity theft happens out there.
General / Off-Topic Victim of identify theft?
- Thread starter thematrixhasyou
- Start date
Identity theft is a risk, yes, but 'full' identity theft is very rare for the average person, the worse we generally have to worry about is "normal" credit card fraud.
Though yes it can happen, but using general common sense will defend against the vast majority of stuff, don't install stuff you do not know e.t.c.
People that just, click yes, yes yes, not caring what it writes on screen and such, just wanting to get to point x when a person tells them that this program does something cool, yeah, those are significantly more at risk.
It's taken me years to educate my wife on the dangers of the internet, though even yesterday she wanted to download this song she likes directly from a website where the song name matched exactly what she'd written, mis-spelling and all. She's learning though.
This is basically it, and these type of people aren't dumb as such, there are just some people where text on screen becomes a blur, instead of just reading it they just go 'blank' and press 'ok' to get the message to vanish.
Until today, I had the chance to be preserved from this kind of problem. As said by xondk, be very careful is the best protection
More the case she's a trusting sort and doesn't quite understand why people would be so devious.
If I get this kind of message, and I do not have a choice other than to click on "ok", then I do a Ctrl + Alt + Del
Hmm so I guess the people most at risk are those who use the internet very infrequently. I heard that the leader of the Nigerian Prince email scam was recently caught by Interpol, and the guy stole around $60 million... madness! It's hard to believe that anyone would fool for that, but I guess a lot do!
Remember that using simple adBlock takes away most of the danger of accidentally clicking on annoying popup windows and hidden scripts that lead to suspicious pages. No idea how anybody is using internet without one these days, especially if you have family members not very conscious about internet safety.
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Ah yes, I think I need to get AdBlock soon, keep forgetting to do it. :x
BTW, I was reading through this and it gives pretty solid advice on the ways that people can steal data and how we can prevent that! I'm actually a bit surprised at how easy it is to steal data, feel like I need more a lot more careful on the web these days
BTW, I was reading through this and it gives pretty solid advice on the ways that people can steal data and how we can prevent that! I'm actually a bit surprised at how easy it is to steal data, feel like I need more a lot more careful on the web these days