Six Ways To Avoid Online Identity Theft

Here are six ways for you to protect yourself from identity theft while using the internet:

1. Regularly check your credit history and statements to make sure nobody is buying products / services in your name or opening credit cards, checking accounts, etc. with your identity. To help detect any problems, consider signing up with an identity theft protection service such as IdentityHawk.

2. Use credit, NOT debit cards when shopping online. When credit cards are stolen, your liability is capped at $50. With debit cards, you are only liable up to $50 if you catch it within 2 days. Between 2 - 60 days, your liability is $500. After 60 days, your liability is unlimited.

3. Never make online purchases from public computers or Wi-Fi.

4. Don't shop, give your credit card number, or type in your personal information one websites you reached by clicking a link from an unsolicited email.

5. When clicking on a shortened URL (like the kind given out on Twitter), make sure that it resolves to a genuine site.

6. Avoid shopping on unfamiliar sites found on an online search. Identity thieves and hackers work on getting their sites ranked high on search engines. Instead, try to shop only on shopping sites you know and trust.