How to protect yourself from online identity theft

Your private information such as date of birth, name and address can be helpful to criminals if they want to make a financial obligation in your name that would benefit them.

Online fraud and online money theft: Online fraudsters often use unawareness to steal your money.

Unfortunately today criminals can gain access to your private details, especially when you are surfing online. And they will use this information to hurt you.

There are two forms well-known and practicised forms of Identity Theft: physical identity theft – when someone steals your ID to open new credit accounts in your name, online hijacking - when someone intercepts your logins, passwords and credentials in order to rob your online banking account and credit hijacking – when a criminal uses your credit accounts for their gain.

To protect yourself from online identity theft, make sure you never download nor install nor open any files from dubious sources such as peer-to-peer networks, warez websites, counterfeit DVD copies and so on.

Next step is installation of a solid internet security suite that comes with built-in online identity theft protection. Norton 360 and Norton Internet Security are examples of such programmes. They can identify fake or phishing sites and will display a warning whenever you visit a dangerous site. They also check if the URL you are visiting is genuine.

For example if you hit a website that pretends to be HSBC's online banking site, but in fact it's a fake site that just looks exactly the same, Norton will warn you before you send them your login and password.