By Officer D. Hatch Kearny Police Department
Many of us spend a portion of our day on computers whether it is for something as simple as checking email or reading a news article online. Many of us may frequent social networking websites in which your personal information may be accessed by others.
Though the security of these websites may prevent people whom you do not know from having access to your information, much of your information may be shared unintentionally by those people with whom you allow access.
It is very important to keep in mind what information you choose to share when accessing any online content. This includes personal activity such as vacations, location information, family activities, etc.
Though you may be sharing information with those people whom you choose, those people may share the same information with others whom you may not know.
Many social networking websites, email accounts or other websites, have privacy settings that allow you to properly secure your information or keep it from being shared to the wrong people. Please take the time to look at the websites or email accounts you use and their settings to ensure your information is kept private, secure and safe.
When speaking of how you share your personal information online, the same applies to telephone calls with people whom you may not know. There are people and others who participate in large organized crime involving the theft of personal information or convincing people to loan them money for various reasons.
In many cases, one would receive a telephone call from a person who claims to be a relative such as a daughter or grandson. This person then states they are in trouble and need a specified amount of money wired to a specified bank account in order to help them in the particular trouble they claim to be in.
This person will know your name, the name of your relative they are pretending to be and often know your address and other personal information in order to help convince you they are who they say they are.
Imitating another individual for fraudulent means is a crime. If you receive a telephone call like this, gather as much information from them as you can including where they are, what they want, who they claim to be, their phone number, how to contact them again, etc. Be careful not to share any more personal information with them than they already have.
These same organizations may also use your email account to attempt the same result. In many cases, an email is sent and states you need to click on a link within the email in order to complete a specified task.
If you do not recognize the sender of the email or cannot verify who they say they are, do not click on the link. The link may contain a computer virus or similar program that either steals your personal information or causes your computer to crash and malfunction.
Your personal information should be kept personal. However, many crimes may not be completely preventable, your cooperation and attentiveness greatly decreases the chances for the crime to take place.
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