Online shopping is a novel concept. Instead of actually carrying all of your groceries, clothes, or other miscellanea around with you, you simply add them to your shopping cart. The prices are still low, but you can shop from the convenience of your home and without the open and close hours that sporadic malls have. Also, you don’t have to carry all of your bags when you are shopping and worry about keeping track of receipts and all of that small stuff.

While online shopping seems like the way to go, and it does hold many distinct advantages, it holds some Internet based dangers as well. While you would know your wallet is gone, it is tough to figure out that your identity has been stolen until it is too late. Anonymity on the Internet is very important and there are many programs on the computer designed to preserve it. One of these such programs is called encryption software. This actually takes all of your data and scrambles it to make it appear like mush to a hacker or interloper; but only on certain sites. You can spot these sites by the distinct lock icon in the bottom of your screen, but be wary, it isn’t every where it should be. Many sites, like MySpace, FaceBook, and a couple of other social networking sites do not support this technology, and this means your password, log-in name, and vicariously, your account information is pretty much open for an experienced hacker to steal and exploit.

While you can be sure that online banking sites have this encryption technology, as mentioned above, many you think should do not. Your social networking sites, and your online shopping sites containing your credit card numbers are often not secure. Invest in some online privacy and safety programs, and some, such as anonymous proxies, can make every page encrypted, so you can rest safely on your online shopping sites.

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One of the issues raised in the video is the use of debit cards.  Again, for years we’ve been telling people not to use debit cards.  They do not offer the same protections that credit cards do.

However, the main item to take away from this, is that protecting your identity, and your privacy, is up to you.  You need to be proactive.  Think through the issues and put safeguards in place so that you do not wind up as a victim.

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The next big problem is that this information is pretty much accessible to anybody. It may not be in a convenient button that says “information here” but it certainly doesn’t take an N.S.A. agent to install a deep packet inspector and steal some of your data. People travel around the Internet blissfully unaware and overall, quite unprotected. The security systems they do have were the ones installed (probably improperly) on their system when they bought it, if they even bothered to do so at all.

Hackers love to see computers running these rudimentary and basic systems. They are all quite similar, so knowing how to break through one’s defenses can let them get through plenty of them. Unfortunately these people don’t realize this and just travel through Internet protected by the pseudo protection of the “Internet Safety Wizard 9000”. Although the name is fancy, the protection is far less than wizard-like.

Consider also how difficult it is to catch a criminal on the Internet. In real life, if a criminal was mugging you for your cash and jewels in a dark alley as you were walking home, as he ran away, you could call 911 and give a thorough description. The next day, his face would be all over the news, and then his face would probably be sitting in a jail cell. An Internet criminal, if tracked, can pack up shop and move somewhere else, without much difficulty. Also, there is little way to know you have been stolen from. If a person took your wallet, you can feel that it is gone, but if they took your bank account numbers, you won’t know until you get that large bill in the mail.

An anonymous proxy is the solution to your identity theft woes and other privacy issues. These programs will keep you safe and secure by changing your IP address which makes you untraceable, both in real-life and on the computer, and will conceal your true location. The good private proxy also comes with encryption services. This will encode all of your data that flows from your computer, so if anyone were to intercept it, all they would see is hieroglyphics and other mush. By using an anonymous proxy, you can be sure hackers and identity thieves will steer clear of you on their Internet runs.

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Internet crime has skyrocketed. The ability to commit crimes on the web is a much safer alternative than actually breaking into someone’s house and stealing. This way, the criminal can’t be caught at the crime scene; he is countries away!

The ability to commit crime and steal people’s information on the Internet is simple. For example, viewing somebody’s public FaceBook or Myspace profile is bound to net you all sorts of useful information about them; location, pictures, affiliations, school, etc. It’ll just be a short time before their Social Security Number is posted on their profile for everyone to swoon over and leave comments on.

The point is, the Internet makes it way to easy for criminals. Most of your surfing is done with simple HTTP requests, which is completely readable; not encrypted whatsoever. If they can’t get you this way, they turn to their next cultural meme for advice: “If you build it, they will come.” If they start a proxy server, millions of surfers will flock in to seek anonymity while browsing the web.

That was a critical mistake. Instead of hiding their information, they pretty much left it on the hacker’s doorstep, tied in a pretty bow. The owner of a proxy can see all of the sensitive information that flows through it, and if the owner is an identity thief…. You get the idea.

You know the old saying “nothing in this world is free”? Well, that could be altered to be a bit more accurate: “nothing GOOD in this world is free”. There are free proxy servers out there, but unless you want to be the next true story in an identity theft article, you should just pay the minimal monthly fee and get the security of a true elite anonymous proxy.

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Initially, Cynthia Lambert’s case was dismissed and she had no recourse.  Her identity was just stolen and that’s all there was to it.  But last week she found out she could reinstate her claim.  The Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, Greg Hartmann, was in violation of Ohio’s Privacy Act when he posted the sensitive information online.

Ms. Lambert received the ticket in September of 2003.  The ticket contained her name, driver’s license number, birth date, social security number, address and her signature.  That is an Identity thief’s dream come true.  All that information could easily be used to take out loans, apply for credit card or open other accounts which can then be used freely without repercussions, as long as they aren’t caught.  They usually aren’t.  All the defaults become the burden of the person whose identity has been stolen.

Over the past year, two large purchases were made in Ms. Lambert’s name. $12,000 worth of purchases from a Home Depot card in her name, and $8000 of goods from Sam’s club.  A driver’s license was shown . . . her license.  But there was an error.  The officer who issued the ticket was one number off when he wrote down the number of her license, and the license shown at the store was also off one number.  Proof it was based on information copied from the county website.  A woman who was arrested for identity theft confessed to being involved in an Identity Theft ring that used county websites to get information.

The court found that the clerk didn’t break any laws or act out of malice by posting the speeding ticket, but the act was illegal because the Social Security number was included in the image and put online.

Common sense should dictate here.  Ms. Lambert showed evidence that her identity was directly compromised because of the county clerk’s failure to remove personal information before posting the ticket.  Florida and California have both made it mandatory to remove or redact data and illegal to post personal information to websites.  While there is some benefit in posting information for business purposes, it’s not necessary to include signatures and Social Security numbers in public forums.  That’s asking for nothing but trouble.

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How wrong I was.  Two days later I received an email from my credit card company informing me my credit card was maxed out.  This was followed by another card being used to its limit.  Then I received another email thanking me for my business.  Supposedly, I had borrowed five hundred dollars.

I was shocked and dismayed, wondering how someone had gotten my credit card information.  I had been anonymously surfing.  I was supposed to be protected.

Well, I wasn’t.

I knew what proxy service I had used when I was anonymously surfing, and contacted them with a complaint, letting them know my personal information had been stolen while using their free service.  They wrote me back informing me that since I used their free service for anonymously surfing rather than their fee-based one, they were not responsible for my losses.  I was furious, but legally there was nothing I could do.  And they had the nerve to offer me a package at a reduced rate.

So I had to cut up my credit cards and dispute the charges.  My credit rating dropped like a stone.  I’m still trying to get the charges off my credit report.  I can’t get a single credit card issued to me at this point.  I also found out that access to some of my personal accounts had been changed as well, and spam posted under my name.  When I tried to open a new account, I was blocked.  Banned from most of the sites for spamming.

It was a nightmare.  But I had to find out what happened, so I did my research.  I only wish I had done it before this happened.  It seems that anonymously surfing using free online proxies is not as secure as it seems.  Your IP address is hidden, but the data that is sent to websites is not encrypted.  Anyone who has access to the server can see all the information sent, collect it, record it and use it.

If only I had used a software-based proxy when anonymously surfing.  Of course, I couldn’t have installed it on the company computer, but I also surf anonymously at home.  I had been lucky up to this point.”

The point of this article is this: Be smart and invest in reliable proxy software when you want to go anonymously surfing on the Internet.  I’ve done the homework for you and experienced the hardship that not doing your homework can cause.  I wouldn’t wish this situation on anyone.  I’ve learned the hard way that anonymously surfing on the Internet using free online proxies has a very high price.  A very high price indeed.”

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