Change Your IP Address

Posts Tagged ‘Hide Your Identity Online’

With the birth of the internet has also come the birth of the internet scam. There are as many different internet scams as there are internet users, and many of them seem very convincing.

One of the most ubiquitous, and oldest, of internet scams is the Nigerian Get Rich Quick scam.

The Nigerian Get Rich Quick scam takes many forms, but is most often done under the guise of having a Nigerian relative or official who has passed away and has left inheritance. The scammer sends an e-mail (generally poorly worded and in broken English) that names the person who has just died and that he or she is the executor of the estate. The executor of the estate requests that you send an e-mail in reply acknowledging receipt of the e-mail. Once the e-mail is replied to, a second e-mail is sent out requesting personal information from the recipient of the inheritance.

Usually the e-mail requests such things as name, date of birth, address, contact phone number, etc. Up until this point, the scam seems fairly legitimate, except, perhaps, that the recipient is not aware that he or she has a Nigerian relative.

The e-mail following the second e-mail is generally the one that tips off even Internet newcomers that there is a scam. The e-mail requests that the beneficiary send money to Nigeria for the will to be completely processed. Often, the e-mail stipulates that the estate is frozen until money is repaid to debtors. Usually the executor requests that the money be sent via Western Union money transfer, though he may also accept a money order, usually, cheques are not accepted.

Once the supposed beneficiary sends out the money, they are promised they money in a cheque sent to the address provided. Sometimes, a fraudulent cheque is sent, and other times there is no cheque at all. If the ‘beneficiary’ tries to send a subsequent e-mail asking where their money is, more often than not, the e-mail address will have been inactivated, and they will realize that they have been scammed.

This summary is only an example of one form of the Nigerian Get Rich Quick scam. Sometimes, it takes the form of having won the Nigerian Lottery, another version of the scam occurs on dating websites. Sometimes, on dating websites, Nigerians will request money to relocate to the United States, or to maintain an internet connection. There is often a promise to pay you back with money from an inheritance, or lottery winnings etc.

With the advent of better spam filters that come with modern security packages, these scam e-mails will now often not ever reach your inbox. However, spam filters will not always filer every e-mail and there are some rules of thumb to avoid getting scammed.

First, unsolicited e-mails are always suspicious, especially ones written in very broken English.

Second, paying money to get money is almost always indicative of a scam.

Thirdly, always deal locally; avoid sending money, or dealing with people who are from overseas, or ever people from different states. Laws vary from country to country, state to state, and even city to city, the closer you stay to your home, the less likely you are to get scammed. And if you do get scammed, you have more recourse with local scams that foreign ones.

So, with a little forethought, you can avoid getting scammed, and make your money only fall into the right hands.

BTW if anybody wants to enjoy seeing the scammers being scammed then go take a look at 419Eater.

Who you are has become a precious commodity to identity thieves. For this reason, many people now shred credit card statements, order items by cheque again, and pay with cash instead of debit card.

However, they often forget that the same hackers who stole personal information from corporate and government databases do not have to go so far to gather all the information of your personal identity online.

Why is it important to protect your identity online?

1. If someone has your account information, researching your personal information can result in finding the answers to your personal questions. Finding your birth certificate can result in knowing the mother’s maiden name, or it could be as simple as asking that information of you at a genealogy chat room. Reading about your favorite sports teams could lead them to your most likely password. Reading your blog could lead them to know where you consider home to be, another common security question. Thus a little online sleuthing can yield the answers to the security questions that were meant to protect your accounts, and it is information we have often already made available if you do not take steps to protect your identity online.
    
2. Your online identity can provide the information necessary to perform identity theft in the real, financial world. Without your current account information but armed with your real information, they may learn enough from your online identity enough to pretend to be you in the real world. Your name, address, and phone number are easily looked up. A social networking site can provide your employer and perhaps even income verification. Information on where you shop, your opinions of credit cards, your online portfolio analysis – all of this information attached to your online identity can give a would-be thief enough information to fill out the necessary forms to get a solid Gold credit card with your name on it.
    
3. If you do not protect your identity online, it is easy for someone to gather all of your personal information and then pretend to be you. A former business partner who wants to discredit you through professional forums, an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend who wants to destroy your life online, all of the information to do can be gleaned unless you have already protected your personal identity online.
    
4. Spear phishing is targeted phishing with the goal of either hacking someone’s computer or eliciting information out of them. This may be done by foreign corporations wanting technical information from a rival firm. It may be done by foreign nationals targeting those with security clearance in the United States. If you have not protected your identity online, you have given these predators the ability to approach you wrapped in a protective cloak. Potentially worse is that you have an insecure online identity, and the phishing attacks of these entities can be done from your online identity, leading law enforcement and searchers to your doorstep
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5. Many companies now do social networking searches of potential employees. If your online identity is either less than perfect or easily made falsely slanderous, you will lose out on employment and consulting opportunities.

Thankfully there are ways to protect your identity online, and the use of anonymous browsing software is the first step we all should take.

Web Security is all about educating yourself about online hazards. Education is the answer to computer security and protecting youngsters on the web. All parents need to educate themselves about Internet security, cyberbullying, and social networking dangers. These all represent threats which did not exist just a few years ago, certainly your old Dr Spock books are going to be no use here!

Social networking is growing at an amazing rate, with children of all ages and online predators and cyberbullies using these sites more and more. Parents should understand the guidelines for protecting children each site has, and if you do not believe the rules are strong enough don’t let your child join the site. There are some basic ground rules for social networking sites including MySpace, Facebook, etc for kid safety.

• First, don’t let your child to use their real name, make a new nickname just for the online world.
• Second , make sure your child understands not to post your home address, home telephone number, or cell phone number.
• Third, make a time-frame for when you child can be online .
• Fourth, all photographs should be reviewed before being posted online .

You should understand that everything your child does on the internet is recorded there forever, once something is uploaded there is generally no delete button. As soon as a site is indexed by a search engine copies are made, so even if you delete the original you will still find thousands of copies all around the net.

Parents should know the way to work the social networking sites which includes making comments on pages, the wall, email, and posting photographs. If possible you should create an account on the social networking site to join in with your children. You can insist to your child that they will not have an account unless they make you a friend so that you can observe their wall, evaluate their friend list and assess the photos getting posted on the web. This simple act will help you forestall online predators from contacting your youngster. I understand most chiildren are not going to like this, but being upfront about everything is far better than being sneaky and being found out.

Cyberbullies bring into play a selection of technology to make threats, trouble, or make the Internet uncomfortable for children. Victims are often kids and the cyberbully generally goes to the same school as your child . Cyberbullies send e-mails, IM or messages to the victim’s cell or computer. This is starting to become even more popular on social networking sites. Parents need to chat to their kids to see if this is happening to them.

Web safety for children is all about parents being educated about web security. Parents need to take a pro-active role in educating themselves about how social networking site work and what is cyberbullying. The more you educate yourself about the internet and talk to your kids the safer they are going to be.

I am going to teach you something today, and this is just for your information there is no need to actually try this out. You promise you will not?

OK, really I will not be held responsible for what you do with this information, if you lose your job or get expelled from school that is your fault!

The online world is one of two faces, the side where we find what we need, book holidays, save time with online services and generally enjoy ourselves. Then there is the darker side, where individuals and organisations are trying to infiltrate our lives without permission, steal our identities, money and generally destroy everything we worked hard for! So yes while we can say the Internet has given us many things, we must not discount the threats it has produced.

Being safe online these days is much harder than even 12 months ago, the methods deployed by criminals become more taxing and skilful by the day. The speed at which these new hacking techniques are being deployed far outstrips the speed at which patches are released for the software we are all using. Even the most respected browsers from Microsoft and Firefox fall foul to many a threat, despite their respective parent companies spending millions of dollars on development. It is therefore even more vital these days to be proactive in your attempts to thwart online criminals, relying on your free antivirus software alone is only going to lead to disaster these days!

Perhaps the most common, and most dangerous, system infiltrations involve key loggers and hidden P2P applications. A system compromised in this way will be working as a server, distributing pirate software or pornography to other users around the world. This takes place without your knowledge, and often with your anti-virus software still running! This is because the program has altered the way your Virus package works, so it reports it is working but really it is not. At the same time key loggers on your computer will record every thing you type, every login, every email, all your bank details will be recorded and sent back to the criminals.

Always ensure you are running with a software firewall on your computer, and preferably a hardware firewall on your modem or router too. These of course must both be setup correctly, if they are configured to allow all traffic then they are effectively not there!

Further you should ensure you are running a complete Anti-Malware package, this will cover virus, phishing, adware, key-loggers and Trojans at the same time, the better packages will include full firewall capabilities in the same package. Ensure you computer is fully patched, which these days requires you to be running with licensed software. Never use pirate copies of operating systems or Anti-Virus products, it may sound like obvious advice but it is amazing how many people trust their online security to the very people who do most of the hacking in the first place!

Finally install IP changing software with encryption technology so as to hide yourself online, as if they can’t find you they can’t attack you!

Every time you use the Internet you are leaving a trail of breadcrumbs which anybody can follow. Sometimes this trail can have a use, for instance Google use it to target local searches to you, or weather sites can automatically give you the weather in your area.

Equally every other activity you are doing online can be tracked, what sites you visited how long you spent there, what you did while there. If you want to enjoy anonymous browsing on the internet and protect your identity you need to find a way to use the internet without leaving this trail all the way back to your computer. You may think that this data is not important, after all so many people are on the Internet and most of them are running without protection.

Why run the risk of Identity theft, and financial problems of having your bank accounts attacked, or even having your Boss knowing what you looked at during the lunch hour!

Let us consider though the world outside of your friends and family you will find even greater reasons to use anonymous browsing, as there are thousands of people monitoring what others are doing. Looking for any information they can use, or weaknesses in security systems. Whether it is the ‘IT Geek’ showing off his skills or organised gangs and criminals looking for their next victim it is going on all around us all the time. In many cases we don’t even see it happening, there are thousands of compromised computers around the world whose owners have no idea.

In most cases basic virus software is not designed to detect such hacks, your best protection is to employ anonymous browsing, to effectively not exist on the Internet. At the very worst level it would be possible to find your physical location through your IP address, while not the easiest task in the world it has happened in the past, and will happen again in the future. Imagine a situation where criminals know who you are, what you have and where you live.

On a higher level governments around the world are slowly eroding peoples freedoms by forcing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to store and provide logs of all activities that take place.

Recent events in Australia have brought the issue up again, with plans to run a nationwide proxy service to keep track and effectively restrict people’s online freedom. In Europe ISPs are obliged to keep their data on you for 2 years, that’s two years of your life on store ready to be accessed as and when needed. The idea is of course to keep track of terrorists and extremists, however as usual it is the ordinary person who is inconvenienced, as no doubt any ‘bad people’ are already hiding their activities.

OK, enough fear how can you enjoy anonymous browsing and protect yourself and your family on the web?   The first thing most people consider is an anonymous proxy server, which is a server you connect through which hides your IP address and replaces it with its own. So while it is possible to find out the IP address of the proxy server if everything is configured properly that is all that can be found out. The information on what you did still exists, but there is no way to link it directly to you.

One of the WORST things you can do is rely on a free anonymous proxy server, have you considered the fact that many of these servers are setup just to collect your data?

If you are using a server run by dishonest people then they are directly collecting everything you do and, for instance, could be storing all your Internet Banking log on details, your Bank Card details, all your usernames and passwords, details of every site you visit and E-Mail you send or receive. In other words EVERYTHING you send and receive over the Internet!

I worked in IT in Russia for several years and know for a fact many of these proxies are setup with the single intent of capturing useful data. Is that what you want when using an anonymous proxy? I would presume not, however that could very well be exactly what you are doing when running an anonymous proxy you found through Google. There truly is no such thing as a free lunch, sure many people are running their proxies with honesty but how can you know for sure which ones?

There is a much better option; you don’t have to just guess which are the safe proxies to use.

A much better option is to subscribe to one of the most respected and unique proxy services available on the Internet today.

A service which not only allows you to change your IP but encrypts your data with the same encryption system used by the US military. Where server logs are deleted almost instantly, so there is no record kept of who you are or what you were doing.

Providing you with the most robust and complete anonymous browsing experiences available. No other anonymous proxy software offers anywhere close to the level of security offered by Identity Cloaker. Software so powerful and unique you can carry it with you on a USB stick and run it wherever you are:

• Visiting a friends house? No problem just plug the USB stick in and run the program

• At the office? No problem, as long as you can access a USB port you can activate the software and enjoy anonymous browsing

• School blocking certain sites? No problem, bypass the restrictions by creating a secure tunnel straight through their security

The uses of anonymous browsing are almost endless.

I highly recommend you try it out, there is a free version with very limited functionality BUT also a trial 10 day version for under 5 Euros which will allow you to fully test the software. After that subscriptions start at less than 7 Euros a month, with NO automatic billing and a 14 day money back guarantee. It is truly the most effective and unique way to enjoy anonymous browsing.