The Internet is a great educational tool and its fun and easy,convenient for shopping and banking.  Unfortunately, with the rapid growth and ease of the internet, comes the potential for online fraud and identity theft. 

Here is some tips to keep yourself from being victimized:

1. First never open an email link, if it claims to be from a bank, credit card company, ebay or paypal.  Visit the website by logging on to it yourself or simply call to see if indeed the email was sent by the company. Many fraudulent emails claim to be from Paypal, if paypal really sent you the email, they always address the the paypal client by the name on the account so if you see the greeting as Dear Paypal Customer, you know it's a fake.

2. Always look for the email address where it originated from, if you see that the domain name on the email is similair to paypal but different that's another clue it's not really Paypal.

3. If you get calls over the telephone claiming that its from your bank or some other agency and they are trying to get your information.  Don't give it out even if you have caller id and it says Bank of America, the representative would not ask for your password or any account information.  It seems there is a new technology out there called Phonecard, it apparently allows any individual to purchase these cards over the internet and allows the consumer to input any telephone number into the company's system and it disguises the real caller's phone number, for example if the caller puts in Bank Of America's phone number then that companys phone number will show up on the potential victim's caller id so the innocent victim thinks they are speaking to a Bank Representative.  Telemarketers are using this technology to get your personal information even if You are on the do not call list, if you enter a contest and agree to be placed on a list then again you are fair game again. By law they are supposed to identify themselves but many are not for example a company NCO or NCT, they have numerous complaints against them for violations, go to the ftc website and read about the law on what telemarketers and bill collectors are not allowed to do under the statue.

Although, laws are being created to try to keep up with the new technologies it's really hard to keep track of all of the new software and newly electronic equipment computer hackers are using today.  

There was a news report on 20/20 about two months ago about those Email and counterfeit checks/postal money orders  Scams from Nigeria, it is so wide spread that it has turned into an industry with internet scam banks set up and gangs of web hackers and email fraud being sent out freely. In some cases, this has become fatal for some victims who actually have gone to Nigeria and are victimized physically and in some cases have been killed.  The government has really turned a blind eye to this type of crime and its beleived that the local police and law enforcement is involved in many cases, they really don't help the victim at all, especially if you are from outside their country. 

The FBI has a unit which deals with online fraud, there you can report a crime, learn tips on prevention for this types of scams.

There are many fradulent websites out there promising jobs or home based opportunities.  They only need your personal information to process the application.  If you are looking for an job online, the best way is the old way networking with friends and neighbors, visiting established recognizable websites such as careebuilder.com, or posting a resume on Monster.com.

  If you create a password do not use your mothers maiden name  or simple numbers in sequence such as 1234. Many of us are lulled into the false sense of security and naturally we want an easy password that we can remember quickly, so many of these scammers know that the average consumer doesn't change their password  or more than likely use the security questions on the website ex; mothers maiden name. If they have a potential victim in mind, or a target.  They will research that target through any means necessary by tricking the victim in an email or purchasing data on a person through public record sites.   Please don't use that information and do change your password often if you keep changing it it is really hard for scammers to get you. 

Paypal has a great new virtual debit card where the debit card number changes every time you go to a website to make a purchase, so no one can access your bank information or if they ever get your paypal password gain access to your bank account through paypal.

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