The Savvy Online Investor

 This internet age has opened up a whole new world of investment opportunities for the future-thinking investor. The speed of communication, access to data and interconnectedness of global markets has truly revolutionized investment strategies and opportunities. But, it has also created a dangerous environment for fraudsters and tricksters to thrive. The use of online sites includes the transmission of sensitive data and the storage of invaluable information in locations that an Investor may not fully control.

Many older Investors who take advantage of online brokerage services, online trading sites and utilize specialized softwares are not aware of just how dangerous the online world can be.

Identity theft is on the rise and the culprits of such crimes are becoming increasingly clever and utilizing social engineering and mimic tricks to fool and track people into giving up information that can lead to complete Identity theft, damage to credit and loss of assets.

In 2011, IdentityHawk , reported that over 36% of all online phishing attempts were aimed at financial service companies . Phishing is the act of stealing passwords, usually via emails that are intended to mimic a trusted source, such as your PayPal or brokerage account. An unsuspecting user receives an email that appears in all ways to be a trusted source but is in fact a mirror that stores your login data, this is in turn saved and used to progressively work backwards through all your known accounts and steal as much of your identifying information as possible.

Savvy Investors are fighting back by utilizing dedicated identity theft protection services. These services mimic the traditional processes used by organized thieves and test your online presence and practices for deficiencies and can monitor the use of your social security number.

Even Investors who are savvy enough to recognize the minor nuances that often are associated with a phishing email, they may not be able to defend against malicious software that can be often injected into a users computer logging every keystroke or redirecting the user to mirrors and mimics of financial sites so that passwords and identifying information can be stolen.

Having a dedicated service to monitor and alert you to suspicious or breaching activity can give you the headstart to secure your identity in this brave new world.