Professors say online shoppers should be wary of fraud
You get your credit card bill in the mail and tear it open. Listed on the unfolded paper are the different items that have been charged to your credit card over the holiday season -$200 spent on Nordstrom.com, $50 at Amazon.com and $240 at bowlersparadise.com.
None of these items you bought yourself. You have been the victim of Internet fraud while shopping online.
In a study done by Forester Research, $1.2 billion were lost in 2003 from Internet fraud. Students are often the primary target for identity theft.
Richard Swart, a doctorate student in business information systems, said, “The primary age group that people target for identity theft is 19 to 25.”
One of the forms of identity theft that Utah State University is warning students about is phishing. According to the USU Webmail Web site, phishing is when criminals will send an e-mail to an individual from a Web site that they have created to look like their bank or online store.
The e-mail asks for updated personal information and tricks the recipient into giving out credit card numbers, social security numbers or user names and passwords. After obtaining this information, the attacker will use it to steal the person’s money and identity. The best way to update personal information is to log onto the official Web site directly.
According to the university’s Webmail Web site, aside from avoiding fake e-mails, students need to be knowledgeable about the Web sites they are shopping on and what makes them secure sites.
There is more than one way to tell if the Web site will secure the information used on it. This can be determined by the URL address. According to the Webmail Web site, if it begins with https instead of http, then it is secure and uses Secure Sockets Layer technology to send a person’s credit card information over the Internet.
Web sites should also list their privacy terms on their Web site if they are legitimate. This indicates if the company has the legal right to give a person’s information to other companies for advertising or if they will store their credit card number for future use, Swart said. Students should always avoid saving credit card information on a Web site even if they shop there frequently, he said.
Many students shop online out of a computer lab or using wireless Internet in a public place. If shopping on a public computer, never start shopping on a browser that was already open, Swart said, always start with a fresh Internet window and never stay online for a long period of time or leave the computer unattended. Also, students should be aware of their surroundings and watch for “shoulder surfers,” Swart said.
Swart said he recommends that a student should never shop online while using wireless Internet. The connection is more vulnerable to hackers and there is a greater risk for identity theft. Criminals can get information quicker through the air and will be able to read all wireless e-mail and all the information that may be in them, including passwords and other account information, he said.
Web sites will ask for passwords as a safety measure for the shopper. If not created correctly, the password can allow easy access to thieves. A person’s password can make them a vulnerable shopper if not created creatively, Swart said. Students should never use the same password to shop as they do to log onto their computer or e-mail account, he said. Avoid using addresses, birthdates, phone numbers or recognizable words, he said.
Karen Forcht, head of the business information systems department, said she suggests checking credit reports frequently. By doing this, it will increase awareness of an individual’s account activity and of any suspicious changes. Credit card companies are willing and helpful to supply these reports at request, she said.
With a personal computer it is smart to set up anti-virus software and firewalls, Forcht said. Hackers often attack a computer by entering through a virus and taking over the computer and all the information that is on it, she said.
Even after all this advice, Forcht said students must be careful.
“Students think that they can go online and go over these checklists and they’ll be fine,” she said. “They are safer but they are not safe. Students must be careful at all times.”
-tarat@cc.usu.edu