Cyber Crimes: How do You Protect Yourself and Family from Cyber Vulnerabilities!

I am very careful when doing banking and shopping. I never give anyone my real date for birth. Only bank can have it. I don't give my real phone number. I am giving everybody my brring number. I never sign with any company that ask about my social security number or my DL number. Link to Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): http://www.ic3.gov/

Hello Kamran, "Every 79 seconds, a thief steals someone's identity, opens accounts in the victim's name and goes on a buying spree." -CBSnews.com, 1/25/2001" "Identity Theft cost consumers more than 5 billion in losses in 2002." "Understanding how the Fraudster got your identity is critical to preventing Identity Fraud and Identity Theft, the number one method of gaining information on a victim was dumpster diving. This is where a fraudster takes mail or information out of the trash about you to go and establish their identity as you. Consumer protection starts at home." The three above quotes come from: http://www.fraudpractice.com/Statistics.htm I place on-line security as a very high priority. I will not provide any data that can be linked to my true identity. No pictures of myself, or any loved ones. No references to my residence, to within 150 mile radius. No mail delivered to our home. Post Office delivery only. No real names. No real birth dates. No references to personal specifics that would allow anyone to link my online identity with my real identity. I am so vigilant because I have twice been stalked. I would never wish that on anyone. So, I urge others to rein in their propensity to share details of their lives with strangers. Most of us will never meet the nameless, faceless individuals that we interact with online. They will forever remain strangers. We must recognize that as fabulous as the internet it, it is a favorite tool of crooks, thieves, predators, and nut-jobs! It is our own responsibility to protect ourselves and our families from these criminals & thugs! Below are a couple of eye-openning links: 1. Computer crimes research website: http://www.crime-research.org/ 2. U.S. D.O.J. computer crimes division http://www.crime-research.org/ 3. The Fraud Practice http://www.fraudpractice.com/Statistics.htm

This is a very interesting topic, kamran! I'll have to admit that I'm probably not the most cyber-safe person in the world. I have pictures posted, and some of the people I talk to online know my real name. I've given out my phone number and/or address to quite a few close online friends over the years as well. I do try to keep my real name off public forums, but I am pretty open about other details about my life. I guess my openness comes from the fact that while quite a few people I've met offline have caused me harm, no one I met online has yet done so. The one online "stalker" I had did nothing worse than show up at my door with flowers... he didn't do any harm even when I turned him down, though I was a bit freaked out over the whole thing.

Kamran ji you started an important discussion. This is what most of the people are facing at on line. We should admit that every light has its dark. Every head has a tail too.Merit and demerits are a fact and reality. There are so many merits of internet but it has so many demerits. we should keep the demerits in our mind. We should make save protected our machine or system with the help of anti virus, fire wall, spy ware, there are many soft ware available in the market and could also be downloaded on line. An act also has been framed to catch such person. But there are still many shortcomings, and we hope that would be covered in just future of the speedy developing field of technology. we should take care. wish you good luck.