It is the age of the web. People thrive online and virtually live there! Naturally, online identity has become as important as real world identity. With the onset of the increased interaction enabled by the Internet and e-commerce, identity fraud and crime have reached a new level of significance.
Thousands become victim to identity thieves every year throughout the world. Often, the fraudsters trick innocent web users into providing personal information and then use the information illicitly. Forged identities are also quite common.
Credit card thefts and unauthorized credit accounts opened without one’s knowledge are another typical example of identity theft. The victim’s identity is misappropriated and used for making expensive purchases or opening new accounts. The potential for such frauds have become a major hurdle for e-commerce.
Many of the reported identity crimes have been cases where the rich and famous are exploited. Money, power and the sheer thrill of the risk involved seemed to have attracted many towards such identity crimes.
Christopher Rocancourt shot to fame by conning many rich and famous personalities in the US by pretending to be a Rockefeller heir, a movie producer, a global financier, the son of Sophia Loren or the nephew of Dino De Laurentis. Rosario Poidimani (an Italian Businessman) impersonated the King of Portugal and sold imaginary aristocratic titles and fraudulent diplomatic passports, with the support of imaginary offshore bank accounts and an elaborate throne room.
Through sites like snopes.com and truthorfiction.com, many such scams have been bought to our attention. For instance, the Nigerian scam mails requesting the transfer of a huge fortune to the recipient’s bank account, in return for which they assure a percentage of the fortune to the recipient. There are certain others who claim that you have won a lottery worth billions. In all such cases, they ask for your account details and use this information for illegitimate actions. Phishing is where the fraudster poses as a legitimate organization, bank, etc., and asks the user to update their personal information. Their website will be almost similar to the original one, and it is hard to spot the difference.
One of the safest ways to safeguard one’s identity online is to establish an indisputably authentic identity verified through trusted sources. Online reputation management involves monitoring your identity online, analyzing and influencing it. If you are an individual, get verified and show that you are who you claim t obe through your website / blog / online pages. If you run a company, odds are high that your customers will have voiced their opinions about you via the Internet. When potential customers type your company name in search engines, the first two pages are the most likely to be viewed by them. It is your responsibility to monitor this space and see whether it contains positive or unwarranted negative news about your company or products. You can keep constant track of what is being written about you by subscribing to Technorati, RSS feeds, Google alerts, etc.
Life on the web has become intertwined with normal life, and our identity and reputation online are immensely important for us to safeguard.
It is our hope that Crederity can help you with helping to establish a credible identity online. With a dedicated team entirely focused on fraud issues, Crederity can help safeguard you against online identity thieves, providing an additional hurdle over which would-be thieves must surmount. We invite you to invest in Crederity, and invest in Trust. We also invite you to contact us with any suggestions you have for improving Crederity, as we value your feedback and fully intend to do the best job that we can in helping to safeguard and enhance your identity online.
Image courtesy: fotolia.com