Protecting Yourself Online

• Fake or "spoof" websites are designed to trick consumers and collect their personal information. Be cautious when clicking on a link or an unknown website or unfamiliar e-mail. The link may take you to a fraudulent site.
• Be wary of computer start-up software that asks for registration information.
• Never share your passwords.
• Don't use e-mail to send personal information.
• Discourage harvesting of your e-mail address – think about creating "disposable" e-mail addresses for online purchases, mask your address or use a unique e-mail address.
• Beware of Internet promotions that ask for personal information. Identity thieves may use phoney offers to get you to give them your information.
• After completing any sort of financial transaction online, make sure you sign out of the website and clear your Internet file/cache. Most financial institutions provide instructions on how to clear the caches under their "security" section.
• Don't give a credit card number or other identification information to a company that doesn't provide its name, business address, telephone number and e-mail address.
• Before giving your credit card number or other financial information to a business, make sure that their website is protected and secured. Look for a lock symbol located somewhere on the browser or make sure the URL begins with "https://".
• Chain letters and phoney investment schemes try to win your confidence with false promises of incredible returns – they're only after your personal and/or credit information. There are many types of investment frauds and scams. Many are convincing and look very real. To learn more about investing and making good investment decisions, visit www.investorED.ca.
• Teach children to keep their identities confidential in chat rooms, bulletin boards or newsgroups. Help them learn to choose screen names that do not identify them, and to understand that any information they exchange on the Internet is not private.
• Look into encryption, firewalls and virus protection for your computer.
• An estimated 60 per cent of young people in Canada use social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. Identity thieves can take simple information such as your birthday or your pet’s name, as clues to common passwords and steal your identity.  Understand that information exchanged in chat rooms, bulletin boards and social network sites is not private.
• Install fire-wall, anti-virus, anti-spyware and security software and keep it up to date.

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