How to prevent identity theft

[Phu Juck]

When we are active internet participants, we have many problems, difficulties and dangers ahead of us and when need to steer clear of all from it. One important topic is identity theft, where your identity will be stolen and abused by criminals online.


Identity theft

Identity theft happens always online when a hacker or criminal wants to have access to our personal data like name, address, amount of Bitcoin holding and online Accounts. It is really a criminal abuse to have identity theft happen, when our identity will be stolen and used for abuse by criminals online. Our identity documents will be used to order from dark net markets, make a criminal business or similar, where our stolen identity will be used.


Avoid KYC

We can avoid KYC, where we avoid to submit our identity online and don’t give it to strangers online. Our passport and different identity documents will be kept for us and no one will have access to it.
KYC is dangerous in many forms, where our identity documents can be hacked and stolen and arrive in darknet markets for trade or for abuse by hackers and criminals.
We never know how safe our identity documents are, when submitted.
Because KYC is criminal’s friend. It makes it easier for criminals to obtain identity documents and to commit fraud in other people’s names more easily.
Only make KYC if you really need it – if not, avoid KYC at any cost.


Don’t enter your address to buy any items online

We can also be careful when we enter our address to order items online. We never know how safe our addresses are when submitted. When we submit our addresses online to order items, it is a high risk to be dangerous and our address can be stolen.
Only submit your personal data to order items if you really need it – if not avoid giving out your personal data.


So, you can see, we can avoid all of it, where we need to make online statements about our address and identity information, we can control it ourselves, where we submit our data and better avoid it entirely to be safe.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

Identity theft

Identity theft happens always online when a hacker or criminal wants to have access to our personal data like name, address, amount of Bitcoin holding and online Accounts. It is really a criminal abuse to have identity theft happen, when our identity will be stolen and used for abuse by criminals online. Our identity documents will be used to order from dark net markets, make a criminal business or similar, where our stolen identity will be used.

There are several ways Identities are stolen, I would try my best to itemize a few and possible ways to curtail/prevent them

• Data breaches: This is when companies that has user data have their databases compromised or intentionally sell user data for financial gains. In this scenario, The user has not much power over such activity and can only initiate legal actions against the company.  
  
  Secondly, Your accounts can be hacked and all your data would be in the hands of the hacker.
  
  - You should setup 2FA where necessary and be sure to use unique passwords, also never store your passwords on the browser since hackers can trace the browser file path on your computer and retrieve the passwords file and encryption key

• Phishing: This are deceptive emails, or texts containing malware that possess your computer or suspicious links that can direct you to sites that would Obtain every data entered there. For example, a clone of your crypto wallet provider sending you mail to verify account or seeking additional information.
  
  - Do not click suspicious links or even open the emails, not to talk of downloading its attachments
  
  - Verify URLs before doing anything on the site. Watch out for typos in domain names
  
   

• Social Engineering: Manipulating a user to share confidential data or gaining undue access to the victim's remote computer during online meetings and retrieving confidential information from such computers.
  
  - Beware of calls/texts from scammers claiming customer care representatives and do not give in to the urgency in their antics.
  
  - Disable remote access to you computer on Zoom or any other online meeting software when having meetings online
  

• Malwares and Keyloggers: Malicious ads can install spywares that uses different methods like OCR(Optical Character Recognition) to steal data from your device and also Keyloggers can be installed to retrieve every single character you type into the device.
  
  - Avoid Suspicious websites
  
  - Use paid version of antivirus and constantly update it when necessary.
  
  - Avoid pirated software as much as you can.
  

• Public WIfi Attack: When you connect to public wifi's, you might be revealing your data over an unprotected connection and it is important to know that every data sent over WIFI networks are visible to the provider and susceptible to data harvesting if the provider has ulterior motives
  
  - Avoid logging into confidential accounts over a public wifi
  
  - Disable auto connect when using public wifi's. This is important so there would not be mistakes and it reconnects without your notice, and you mistakenly send confidential data over it thinking it was your own protected network.

[Phu Juck]

There are several ways Identities are stolen, I would try my best to itemize a few and possible ways to curtail/prevent them

You are right, hackers and criminals have so many attack vectors, to make victims online from hacking and stealing personal data such like KYC. We have very huge inconvenieces to take to stay safe online against hackers and criminals.

[promise444c5]

Privacy is kinda complicated when it comes to crypto space, Apart from exchange, there’re different way an identity can be leaked..
The most common is connecting your address to a real world identity(could even be public)..
when you create an account on exchange, only the exchange knows the identity but let’s say you bought some coin from exchange  and you move it to a noncustodial wallet:
Making purchase using your address from on an online store that contains your realize identity leave trace of identity to such address this is why address reusage is not advisable to avoid linking  unnecessary mutiple UTXO together.

[Ever-young]

There are several ways Identities are stolen, I would try my best to itemize a few and possible ways to curtail/prevent them

You are right, hackers and criminals have so many attack vectors, to make victims online from hacking and stealing personal data such like KYC. We have very huge inconvenieces to take to stay safe online against hackers and criminals.

The moment you submit your data online to pass any form of KYC you have already risked it or will I just say you have exchanged your privacy for what ever reason you submitted it for it should be worth it before we think about submitting our document online for any form of verification, sometimes it’s not just data bridging that expose our data but some insiders who work with the service can be the ones to sell off users data we have had about such cases in the past and it’s very common where their is monetary benefit attached to it.

[DPHOR]

There are several ways Identities are stolen, I would try my best to itemize a few and possible ways to curtail/prevent them

You are right, hackers and criminals have so many attack vectors, to make victims online from hacking and stealing personal data such like KYC. We have very huge inconvenieces to take to stay safe online against hackers and criminals.

The moment you submit your data online to pass any form of KYC you have already risked it or will I just say you have exchanged your privacy for what ever reason you submitted it for it should be worth it before we think about submitting our document online for any form of verification, sometimes it’s not just data bridging that expose our data but some insiders who work with the service can be the ones to sell off users data we have had about such cases in the past and it’s very common where their is monetary benefit attached to it.

Anyone who must remain in the space for long should avoid how they give out their personal information especially to gambling and to exchange as I believe it's these two platforms that often asked for documentation, but what more and what would their user do after reading the terms and condition binding their operations between the casino or exchange to their users they wouldn't have any options than to accept in other for them to continue using that site.

[Ever-young]

The moment you submit your data online to pass any form of KYC you have already risked it or will I just say you have exchanged your privacy for what ever reason you submitted it for it should be worth it before we think about submitting our document online for any form of verification, sometimes it’s not just data bridging that expose our data but some insiders who work with the service can be the ones to sell off users data we have had about such cases in the past and it’s very common where their is monetary benefit attached to it.

Anyone who must remain in the space for long should avoid how they give out their personal information especially to gambling and to exchange as I believe it's these two platforms that often asked for documentation, but what more and what would their user do after reading the terms and condition binding their operations between the casino or exchange to their users they wouldn't have any options than to accept in other for them to continue using that site.

How I use my personal information don’t have anything to do with how long I will last in the crypto space or in online space what matters most is that I follow the rules of what ever service that I’m making use of and even if my data is being sold out to scammers it won’t still affect my existence online as long as I’m not the only one affected it’s a bit defendable, although their are cases where scammers can use others identity in a critical case and it will land the person in big trouble.

[Salahmu]

Anyone who must remain in the space for long should avoid how they give out their personal information especially to gambling and to exchange as I believe it's these two platforms that often asked for documentation, but what more and what would their user do after reading the terms and condition binding their operations between the casino or exchange to their users they wouldn't have any options than to accept in other for them to continue using that site.

Because of privacy linkage there should have been more better way verification could have been instead of someone uploading there documents before getting verified because the world we live in today alot of unimaginable things are happening even to people who did nothing wrong but because someone impersonated them with there ID card, so actually this should have been enough reason why all the platforms that requires documents verification should think of another suitable way for it, I don't no how this is going to look but what if those platforms will just delete the users verification document after getting them verified from there database so that if there is any leakage, privacy will not be intrude.

[Agbe]

This is a very important topic that you raised here as identity theft is one thing that criminals has been using to defraud people using their information to do criminal related issues online but KYC is one thing that is of issue if the problem of identity theft is to be sold because almost sites that you visit is requiring KYC to verify you so we have to be careful of the sites that we do KYC on we should try and verify the security of the sites before doing any KYC on it

[RealNoblee]

When we are active internet participants, we have many problems, difficulties and dangers ahead of us and when need to steer clear of all from it. One important topic is identity theft, where your identity will be stolen and abused by criminals online.


Identity theft

Identity theft happens always online when a hacker or criminal wants to have access to our personal data like name, address, amount of Bitcoin holding and online Accounts. It is really a criminal abuse to have identity theft happen, when our identity will be stolen and used for abuse by criminals online. Our identity documents will be used to order from dark net markets, make a criminal business or similar, where our stolen identity will be used.


Avoid KYC

We can avoid KYC, where we avoid to submit our identity online and don’t give it to strangers online. Our passport and different identity documents will be kept for us and no one will have access to it.
KYC is dangerous in many forms, where our identity documents can be hacked and stolen and arrive in darknet markets for trade or for abuse by hackers and criminals.
We never know how safe our identity documents are, when submitted.
Because KYC is criminal’s friend. It makes it easier for criminals to obtain identity documents and to commit fraud in other people’s names more easily.
Only make KYC if you really need it – if not, avoid KYC at any cost.


Don’t enter your address to buy any items online

We can also be careful when we enter our address to order items online. We never know how safe our addresses are when submitted. When we submit our addresses online to order items, it is a high risk to be dangerous and our address can be stolen.
Only submit your personal data to order items if you really need it – if not avoid giving out your personal data.


So, you can see, we can avoid all of it, where we need to make online statements about our address and identity information, we can control it ourselves, where we submit our data and better avoid it entirely to be safe.

The matter here is not just being careful but also understand that most of the  crypto requires kyc capturing.

What and what details are we no supposed to submit during kyc capturing  and if those are required, one can forget it.

[SmartCharpa]

Baba na better thing you talk so as e dey happen steady online and many people no dey even sabi say dem don fall victim until e don too late. You see say once dem collect your personal information, them fit use am do plenty evil thing. Moreover, waiting you talk about KYC make sense. As people dey talk say  do KYC, do KYC, nobody dey tell us the risk wey dey inside, If hackers or bad people get access to that KYC, problem don start. Dem fit use your ID open account, borrow money, or even commit fraud wey you go dey explain tire later.

So e better make person wise. If e no really dey necessary to do KYC, make we dey avoid am. No be everything online we go dey rush enter, Make we dey protect ourself before story turn to if I had I known. Even to drop our home address to buy something online fit land us for trouble. Some people go use am track you or use am for fraud. Unless na very trusted and secured platform, make we no dey submit your personal information up and down.

[Rruchi man]

One important topic is identity theft, where your identity will be stolen and abused by criminals online.

Consider this: because when we speak of identity theft, most people reason that it is only strangers who are capable of stealing their identity, and because of that, they let their guard down when they are with people they consider close friends and even family, keeping important details about themselves that should be personal carelessly.

Identity theft can be carried out by anyone, not just strangers. Some of your closest friends and family can decide to impersonate you when the opportunity presents itself.

[Callido]

Avoid KYC

It is usually difficult avoiding KYC, as a newbie it will be difficult to head straight into using DEX because of complications of understanding and setting up the trade. Submitting our information to any CEX means giving them the opportunity to handle our profiles and do whatever they want with it, without our consent. To be on the safe side, we can limit how many exchanges we share our details and choose the safest.

[Agbamoni]

Let me use this medium to remind us what have been trending on social media. The use of AI video tools, commonly known as a google VEO 3. Most videos trending are used by AI by just sending prompt that was imagined by the user and it can be used also to clone an image or video of someone who is real when you share there picture.

These tools can be used to create for videos of anyone, as long as they have the image of that person. The videos can be created in form of a porn video, or a video of someone begging for money, sent to his family. I also imagined a video where they claim the person was kidnapped and them requesting for ransom. May scenarios they can come up with. But however, I will make a post on how to identify fake AI videos soon.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

When we are active internet participants, we have many problems, difficulties and dangers ahead of us and when need to steer clear of all from it. One important topic is identity theft, where your identity will be stolen and abused by criminals online.

We can't help this by doing everything you said because all of them are now like a norm to have access to your money for being someone that earns from online. It must not necessary be crypto but other means of earning online. If we don't enter addresses online for shopping then how do we get our items delivered to us at home or are you saying we should avoid online shopping completely? It's not possible and there are just things that they have become a part of us that we can't just avoid them anymore.

What we can do is to just avoid letting out our sensitive information on different platforms, we have to avoid trusting random sites with our credentials. You can't prevent identity theft but you can limit the information they have access to by being selective of what you give away.