Email Identity Theft.

Online Identity Theft may begin with just your email address being stolen.

Email identity Theft? That's ridiculous! "If they steal my email address I'll just get another one and life goes on"!

This was an actual reply we received when we asked a friend ours, a retired medical doctor, if he knew what email identity theft was. He never saw the connection between his identity and his email address being stolen.

Most people never do and identity thieves are counting on that!

Have you ever received junk email (Spam) with your own email address as the return address? Did you do what most people do, just deleted it and moved on? If so, you basically just gave a spammer permission to continue using your email address (and Internet Service Provider, ISP) to do their dirty work! That email you deleted may have just been a test to gauge your reaction.

A better reaction to the email would be to immediately report it to your ISP as spam and not coming from you. Your ISP has the capability of distinguishing whether or not you have been victimized. That's great, but more important to you is the fact the ISP now has your complaint on file. In the event of a future mass spamming with your email address, they already know that you are a victim of email identity theft.

Your quick action should enable them to have the correct answers ready for the people who will be complaining to them that you are a spammer! You should also be prepared for the tons of angry replies and requests to "be removed" from your mailing lists that are sure to follow, very shortly.

If your email mailbox suddenly starts filling up with such requests and other "nasties", get back in touch with your ISP. They haven't done their job of protecting you, their consumer!

The "good" news here is that a spammer generally uses a stolen email address or hijacked server for, on average, five days. At the end of which time, they are either banned or blocked by the ISP.

“Phishing takes on many guises including emails that proclaim, "You are the winner of a new [insert super expensive prize here]. Click here to register". Always remember, if you didn' t sign up for a contest, how in heaven's name can they pick you to be the winner? if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

How does a person commit email identity theft anyway?

There are several very effective ways an id thief can obtain your email address. Below, we list a few of the most common ways.

• Email harvesters. Sometimes called emailbots. Bits of software scripts that roam the internet with one purpose in mind. They collect email addresses whenever and wherever they find them and relays this information to the computer that controls them. They troll websites and other internet content looking for any unprotected email addresses, and when they do find them, they simply harvest them.
• Pharming websites. These websites are set up with email address theft in mind. They collect email addresses from site visitors who are willing to give them up. Many guises are used to do this, including, "You are the winner of a new [insert fantastic prize]. Click here to register". Always remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Buying a list of addresses. List harvesters capture and organizes emails into huge lists that are then sold to anyone willing to pay for them, usually spammers.

Email identity theft is usually an online business's problem. These businesses are established already, their email address is legitimate, and their brand may already be well known, and therefore trusted by their consumers.

As we have shown you, an identity thief doesn't have to steal your social security number in order to negatively impact your reputation. Email identity theft is growing rapidly, and unless some major corporations and the Federal Government get together to come up with a solution for Spam, it's here to stay.