Like millions of others, I have purchased some of my shoes from Zappos.com. Now like millions of others I have had some information about myself stolen by cyber criminals. According to Zappos, the thieves did not access complete credit card information but they may have gotten my name, email address, phone number, address and the last four digits of my credit card. Although I am not yet worried, I expect to receive emails from Zappos in the near future asking me to update my information. I am positive those emails will assure me of their legitimacy, perhaps by referencing the last four digits of my credit card.
As some of you may have guessed, I’m not really talking about getting emails from the real Zappos but from those nasty criminals instead. They will try to bait me into emailing them more information about myself or perhaps asking me to enter it into a false website by way of a link they conveniently provide. They may even email me about an order being shipped that I haven’t placed or tell me about something new on sale. Don’t be fooled; instead take a proactive approach and navigate to Zappos.com beforehand. There you can reset your password to something unique as well as update anything else you like. Later on when the emails arrive, you can simply delete them knowing that you have already changed the things you needed to. If you think an email may be real, simply close it and navigate to the site manually to avoid false redirections.
Now a word about your passwords; I know that you have too many to remember as it is. That’s too bad. In our evolving digital world, keeping up with passwords is a way of life. Using one password for all your information is not a good idea. Use complex unique passwords for all things; that way if one is breached, you only have one password to reset instead of all of them. So please, always use a little common sense and pay attention when it comes to your digital life. Those two simple pieces of advice can go a long way toward avoiding an identity theft disaster.
Safe surfing…
Max Haithcox
I.T. Innovations, Inc.
References:
Zappos Says Hackers Accessed 24 Million Customers’ Account Details
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