Stopping Identity Theft

Stopping identity theft is next to impossible with the latest technology. While designers and engineers of the Internet are claiming to find resolves from stopping identity crimes, they are a long way from success. Each year technology creates new software programs to fight identity theft; the thieves have already prepared and learned strategies to get in the databases. Thus, thieves work harder than anyone else does in the world, since motive, intent, desire and greed control their minds. Some thieves are innocent, until the crime is committed.

You may ask, how is a thief innocent until he commits a crime, but teenagers around the world spend hours on the Internet and become curious after hearing reports of hackers invading peoples lives, thus attempt to break codes them self. The perpetrator of the Doom Worm was an eighteen-year old from England that destroyed many peoples' computers before the police were able to catch him. I was one of those victims, and learned that while I lost valuable information that was unrecoverable, he was only doing five-years for the crime.

Now, identity theft is considered a Felony, but still the term may or may not get him the time he deserves. Furthermore, no time spent in prison will make up what the victim has lost. Therefore, it is up to us to stop identity theft before it occurs. If you live on the World Wide Web as some of us do, you will need to learn how to wipe out traces of your visits to websites and protect your identity.

While visiting sites traces of your information is left behind. The World Wide Web pages have web-tracking tools that monitor each person that visits sites. The software tracks information, while creating cookies along the way. Some of the activities conducted by this tracking device create Spyware actions, although the programs utilized are, suppose to be of help rather than cause harm. Still, these programs will leave traces of your information, including sites visited, corner of the world you live in, "IP address," and even which "Internet" Provider services you. When you type while visiting the Internet you are subject to losing your identity since each key stroke is signal and sent over the Internet.

Therefore, to remove traces of your activities you must continue Deleting Cookies, Clearing History and removing files that accumulate from site visits. Some people purchase different types of software programs that remove traces, while others are unaware of the software available to them. Window Washer is one of the better software's for removing traces, since the program will clear the history of Document History, Find/Search History, Media Player, Memory Dump Files, Recycle Bin, Run History, Registry Streams, Temp Folders and so forth. The program will also recover space for the user, clearing up the hard drive. Window Washer will clean your computer, remove traces of deleted files by shredding them, but mostly the program can restore the files or remove the files' that compromises your privacy.

If you do not have software to remove traces of your information, go to the Start up menu, click the Control Panel and Internet Options. Once the pop up box opens click Delete Cookies, and then click Delete Files. Once the box pops up for the Delete Files, check the Offline Box in the dialogue and hit Enter. Next, click the Clear History tab and hit Ok once the action has finished. It is important to do this each time when you visit the Internet.

Nowadays, you have to perform this action more so than ever, since the High-Speed Connections keep you online while your computer is tuned on. This brings up another subject. Anytime you are not using your computer click Start and Turn Off Computer, thus reducing the chances of identity theft.

Other steps are necessary to protect yourself online, such as never giving out personal information to anyone, especially from mails that come in your mailbox. If you pay bills online you are at risk, thus make sure you remove all traces once the bill is paid. Most Internet providers claim their connection is secured, but this is not true to a large extent, thus one of the safer areas to pay bills is using AOL browsers, since it appears more secure. Still, there are risks.