Just In Time For Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Ways to Avoid Identify Theft When Shopping Online

This Thanksgiving weekend, and continuing until Christmas, millions of people will be shopping - both in person and (increasingly) online.

Here are some tips to protect your identity when shopping online:

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 buy from unknown websites that rank high on general search engines. Many of these belong to identity thieves and hackers. Instead, 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).