9 Ways To Avoid Online Identity Theft

Identity theft is a real risk when you are surfing and shopping online. Here are 9 important ways to protect yourself:

1. Proactively monitor your information - consider signing up with an identity theft protection service such as IdentityHawk.

2. Avoid using debit cards. If your credit card is stolen, your liability is capped at $50. However, if someone steals your debit card and drains your bank account, you are only liable up to $50 if you catch it within 2 days. Between 2 - 60 days, your liability is $500. After 60 days, your liability is unlimited.

3. Regularly monitor your credit card statements for fraud. Another good idea is to reserve only one credit card for online purchases.

4. Never use a public computer or public Wi-Fi to shop.

5. Don't pay at sites like eBay with wire transfers. Use a credit card.

6. When shopping, don't click on links in an unsolicited email.

7. Be careful when using shortened URLs from sites like Twitter. Make sure they take you to legitimate sites.

8. When buying from sites like eBay, don't use an unfamiliar escrow service without checking them out.

9. Don't search for products on general search engines. Identity thieves and hackers work to get their sites ranked high on search engines. Try to search for products on known merchant sites (like Amazon.com or Target.com) or on price-comparison sites (like Shopzilla.com or Price Grabber).