Protecting Your Personal Information Online

Balancing your busy life isn't easy. Between your job and taking care of your kids, you don't have a lot of extra time. Fortunately, the Internet saves you precious hours by allowing you to shop, pay bills, and do other things online.

Naturally, every merchant, bank, or Web site you do business with online wants your personal information to make sure it's really you. As a result, you have to be careful to protect your information so that you won't fall victim to online fraud or identity theft. Here's what you can do to keep your risks to a minimum:

• Use only trustworthy sites that employ encrypted security measures.
• Refuse to share your personal information unless you know and approve of where it is going and how it will be used.
• Use strong passwords, and never send your password to someone else in an e-mail or an instant message.
• Ignore e-mails that promise some great reward for little or no effort.
• Don't respond to e-mail messages that say there is a problem with your account and ask you to send your personal information by e-mail or by e-mail form. Legitimate companies don't do business that way.

Next: Learn what to do if you become a victim of online fraud.