Watch Out For Internet Identity Theft

There are many Web sites on the Internet setup solely as a guise to steal unsuspecting victims information that they may enter into their Web site(s). Many of these Web sites look perfectly legitimate upon first viewing.

Here are some sure fire ways to determine if a credit reporting site is a legitimate presence or not.

A legitimate credit report Web sites will only ask for personal identifying information, such as the applicants social security number, on a secured page that is encrypted. It may be okay to input your E-Mail address or home address on a non-encrypted Web page, but you should never enter your social security number, or other personal identifying information that is of a sensitive nature! A web surfer can quickly decipher whether or not a Web page is secure and encrypted for safe data transfer in several ways, including:

Place the mouse anywhere within the Web page and right mouse click on the Web page. Choose to view the Source properties of the Web page. The properties should show the connection as SSL or using code encryption.

Look at the bottom right corner of the Web browser and see if you can locate a small symbol of a padlock (lower right corner of a Internet Explorer browser window).

The URL path of the Web page will start with 'https' instead of a standard non-encrypted page which starts with just 'http'' ... the append of the 's' represents 'secured'.

Never enter any credit card or debit card information into any form inputs on a non encrypted page! The Internet is not secure for sending credit card numbers and expiration dates over non-encrypted Web pages.

In the event that an agency requests that you E-Mail your personal information. Most E-Mail services are not encrypted and therefore are not secure, nor is it encrypted.

Does the Internet Web site have an easily located contact information link or Web page showing a phone contact number and a physical address location of the entity?

Most legitimate credit report sites will not hide their contact phone number and physical address location for this very reason. You must also ask yourself this very important question, do you really want to do business with a Web site identity that does not clearly supply important information such as this? If in doubt about any Web site, try calling the phone number listed and speak directly with someone at the posted company. They should be very knowledgeable about credit reporting and/or the service/product advertised.

Check to see that the Web site have a working verification seal on their Web pages from someone like BBBOnline, Truste, or Verisign.

Click on the verified seal and see that it is a working seal that takes you to the web page of the company providing the secured seal. Beware of seals that do not work properly.

If you doubt any Web sites information in any capacity, DO NOT USE IT!