The widespread use of personal computers and the internet is a godsend for many identity thieves. The days of rummaging through trash cans looking for personal details like bank account details or a social security number has gone. For today's thieves the tools of trade are the computer and countless bogus email ids. And their pool of potential victims has spread from the local area to the whole world. So it is no wonder that computer identity theft is on the rise and one of the fastest growing crimes to date.

Although it might appear like a high tech crime, the most common form of computer identity theft is in fact one of the oldest crimes going. It is a simple confidence trick that can be blatantly obvious or elaborately cunning depending on your experience of these things.

So, by far the most common form of identity theft relies on triggering a persons fear or greed. These two emotions are incredibly strong for many people and will compel them to take some kind of action. Once these emotions are raised, the identity theft simply tells the potential victim what needs to be done to rectify the situation and gives them an easy way to do this.

A common fear that many people that use computers have is that they will be a target of computer identity theft. They use computers a bit but know that there are some smart people out in the world who can do all sorts of things with computers. One day they receive an email from their bank saying that their bank account was hacked into last night. Please enter their details and then change the password so this can't happen again.

After the initial shock you begin to wonder what has happened to the account - has money been taken out ? You first reaction is to login to your account and see what the damage might be. This is also the advice you will get in the email and they also make it convenient for you to login to your account by providing a login box below the letter.

Some of these emails are obviously fakes. They don't look very convincing. The email has no genuine logo or header of the company in question. The wording in the email may have spelling mistakes in them or bad grammar. The sending email id may come from a free email id source like hotmail. However, some are incredibly accurate and quite convincing. It is important to remain wary of any such emails regardless of how official they look.

Phishing scams work by presenting an official looking email or directing the intended victim to an authentic looking website. This is the process of building trust or confidence. With trust established the thief will ask for important details from the potential victim. This may be anything from bank account details to a social security number. They can then wreak havoc on their finances or apply for things like credit cards using their identity.

Most companies will never ask for personal details over the internet or via an email. If you get an email like this then delete it. If you are asked to give information over the web then make sure the website is secure. Common methods of determining this are to look for 'https' at the start of the address. Also the page should mention that it is secure. This may be explicitly stated or maybe a lock logo will be at the top or bottom of the screen. Clicking on the lock will give you more details of how their web page is secure.