***Identity Thieves Lurking inside your Computer

I’ve got a scary number for you: Security experts estimate that as many as ten million personal computers are infected with viruses designed to steal your personal information.

If that doesn’t make your hair stand on end, then listen to this: Panda Security found that at least one percent of the 67 million people who utilized their free Active Scan to test their computers last year were infected with malicious Trojan software programs. That’s 670,000 computers. They estimate that if 1 percent of the computers in homes across the world actually downloaded malware without knowledge of it, it’s safe to estimate then that over ten million computers worldwide could potentially be infected with software capable of stealing its contents—and along with that, personal identities.

The scary numbers just keep coming. According to Panda Security, their detection rate rose to over 800 percent between the middle of 2008 and the end of the year. Victims are usually infected after being duped into downloading virus programs through fake websites or pop-ups.

Malicious programs such as key logger spyware can go undetected for quite a period of time, whether or not the latest antivirus updates are installed. And once these destructive programs are downloaded onto a computer, every keystroke made—including credit card numbers entered, Social Security numbers typed, banking information and passwords input—are then in the hands of the bad guys. Thieves have become technologically savvy. In fact, Panda reported that more than a third of the PCs they found to be infected had fully-functional and recently-updated anti-virus programs installed.

Here are some of the highlights from Panda’s Study on the evolution of online identity theft:

• Over three million of the audited users in the U.S. and more than 10 million users worldwide were infected with active identity theft-based malware in 2008

• 1.07 percent of all PCs scanned in 2008 were infected with active malware (resident in memory during the scan) related to identity theft, such as banker Trojans

• 35 percent of the infected PCs had up-to-date antivirus software installed

• The number of PCs infected with identify theft malware increased by 800 percent from the first half of 2008 to the second half

I have a few more numbers for you:

The Federal Trade Commission just released their latest figures in their Consumer Sentinel Network Complaint Summary for 2008.

The total number of complaints made to the FTC during 2008 was the highest ever tallying more than 1.2 million registered complaints.

A total of 643,195 were fraud related complaints.

All 50 states saw an increase in identity theft complaints and the top five states remained the same –Arizona, California, Florida Texas and Nevada. However, Florida jumped from its previous ranking of fifth - to being the third highest state for identity theft complaints. There was a 31% increase in identity theft complaints from last year alone in south Florida.

Credit card fraud (20%) was the most common form of reported identity theft followed by government documents/benefits fraud (15%), employment fraud (15%) and phone or utilities fraud (13%). Other significant categories of identity theft reported by victims were bank fraud (11%) and loan fraud (4%).

How likely is it that you will become a victim of fraud?

26 times more likely than being a victim of a violent crime
21 times more likely than having your home burglarized

Five Quick tips to help protect your computer and your identity;

1. If you are using a shared computer, always delete any personal information and passwords you may have entered.

2. Never click on pop-ups or embedded links contained in email from an unknown source, even if it says, “You have been sent a postcard from your friend!” These are most likely fronts for “phishing” scams. DON’T CLICK.

3. Use care when picking passwords. Don’t use passwords containing public information that a trained identity thief can easily crack. Hint: your birth date, the name of your pet, and your mother’s maiden name are not as secret as you think.

4. When shopping online; look for signs a site is safe, such as a closed padlock on the browser's status bar. When you're asked for payment information, the beginning of the site's URL address should change from "http" to "https," indicating that the purchase is encrypted and the site is secure. Type the site's name into a search engine and if you find unfavorable reviews posted, you may be better off doing business elsewhere.

5. Beware of "You've received a greeting card" scams. If an email claims you received a holiday card or gift card, don't open it without first checking and confirming that the person it claims to come from actually sent it to you!

An identity theft occurs every 3 seconds. If you lead a hectic lifestyle and don’t especially want to spend your free time placing fraud alerts, ordering credit reports, freezing and thawing your credit, opting out of junk mailing lists, and can’t fathom spending months or years trying to restore your identity if stolen, then consider doing what I did…enroll in LifeLock and turn the burden of protecting your life over to them! Use promotional code: “Denise” for a 20% discount –as a courtesy of LifeLock who advocates and supports consumer education.

Remember, the best way to lessen the blow of an identity theft is to prepare for one! When it comes to identity theft, it’s what you don’t know that will hurt you!