Identity Theft
Personal Data Security
Methods – How It Happens
-
Phishing
scams:
In this scam you might get an e-mail that looks like it’s from bank
or other financial institution, and it contains a link to website
were the person is asked to provide personal information (Lininger &
vines, 2005). Scammers can do many things after getting the
information like logging into your real account, apply loan on your
behalf.
-
Data
breaches:
Sometimes hackers break into big companies and steal personal
information, files, project and some other sensitive information (Privacy
Rights Clearinghouse, 2018).
-
Card
skimming:
Devices hidden on ATMs or store payment machines can copy your
credit or debit card when the cardholder swipes the card and enter
the pin number (Davis, 2005). For example, there are many videos on
internet were a guy goes to the shop and show us how similar machine
is attached at the top of card machine so when you insert or swipe
your card in that fake machine it copies your card detail.
-
Fake
calls:
Scammers pretend to be from TRAI (The Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India) or a tech support line and try to scare you into giving
them personal details.
Fraudster call the mobile users by saying that they are from TRAI
and accusing the users saying that they are involved in some kind of
illegal activity or SIM misuse. They say that pay the penalty or
users number will be disconnected (TRAI warns against fake calls,
2025)
-
Unsecure
public Wi-Fi:
People like to use free wi-fi it can be at any café or airport. So,
when we enable the wi-fi on our phone to connect it always show
unsecure network which means a hacker can hack into our phone and
watch what we are doing, moreover they can leak our personal
information or photos. So, using unprotected connection is risky
(Watts, 2016).