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You may have noticed some strange commercials on television lately. They depict a large man talking in a young girls voice telling of her thespian aspirations; or maybe you have seen a pair of elderly ladies speaking in a young man's voice? These amusing commercials bring comedy to a rather dismal subject, Identity Theft and Fraudulent Charges.
Assessing the Damage:
Fraudulent charges are often the symptom of Identity Theft, to at lease some extent. While Identity Theft often describes a more comprehensive theft of information, fraudulent charges may consist of only a handful of stolen numbers. A common version, and the one depicted in the stories above, involves making charges on a line of credit or debit that is not your own (and thereby fraudulent). The damages are very real, and often very noticeable. Looking at your monthly bill, and finding such a charge can alert you to the fraudulent activities. It is likely that the damage is accurately reflected in that charge, however, law enforcement needs to be notified, as well as your financial institutions, they then then help you determine if any more damage has been done (such as determining if your identity was stolen, or just your credit card).
Remediation:
Normally, financial institutions will reimburse you for part or all of the fraudulent charges. However, this does depend on the individual institution, and almost always is only done after law enforcement has become involved. If you believe your information was stolen via the internet and or your computer, then alert law enforcement to your suspicions. A forensic analysis may be done to help determine how the information was stolen. Afterwards, if your are told they have finished any analysis, you should perform a complete reformat of your system, and then install the operating system, and all applications you want to use. (Doing a system restore or a OS Reinstall will NOT remove the security threat, as it may hide among your data files.)
Preventing Future Attacks:
It is always important to protect your physical information assets (such as the credit cards themselves). However, many people overlook the importance of protecting your digital/online information. This includes any information on your computer, and especially information you enter online. You should always verify the legitimacy of a website before entering any information. See Defenses: Smart Surfing on the Web. At the very least, it should be a secure website (the "lock icon" should appear in the lower corner, and the URL should start with https:// as opposed to http://) and it should be a reputable company.
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