Cyber Stalking and Identity Theft Prevention

We have all heard the phrase and we have all seen the TV movies but how common is it Who is at risk

We have all heard the phrase and we have all seen the TV movies but how common is it? Who is at risk?

The answer is it''s far more common than you would think. Cyber stalking is a serious crime and as more people chat online or create Myspace.com pages more people are exposing themselves to potential online stalkers.

Victims of a cyber stalker can have their entire life turned upside down. The stalker can begin harassing them at work, church and school. They can expand their attack to the victims friends, family and coworkers.

How do these stalkers get the information to stalk their victims? Well most likely its not some genius hacker that can hack into the main frames at the power company or FBI data base to get all your personal information. It''s just a regular guy like you or me that you ran into in a chat room or message board and for some reason or another you upset him. Maybe he saw your picture on your profile and approached you in a flirtatious manner. You were having a bad day and brushed him off rudely.

What was just an innocent online chat to you was far more personal to him and now he wants your attention.

That is how simple a stalking case can begin but it can end very seriously.

It could end with phone calls and letters to your friends, neighbors family , place of employment.

It could even end up with a face to face visit from your stalker in real life.

It can even result in identity theft where the stalker , now armed with all of your personal information with impersonate you and apply for credit all over town running up huge bills in your good name.

How do they get the information?

Its easy, you gave it to them. When you put names , even first names of you or your spouse, your occupation, hobbies birth date or even zodiac sign it is easy for a determined stalker to take those clues and find out all your information.

Its important for us to be careful and safe online but its also important to be proactive. Nowadays we are warned constantly about getting our own credit reports to guard against identity theft but by then its too late. They have already stolen your identity. What we need to do is find out what stalkers and identity thieves can find out about us BEFORE they find it . Then go back and remove that information. But where can you start?

Since you''re probably not stalker or an investigator the best bet is to hire a professional.

People like investigators are experts in dealing with stalkers and Identity theft. But before you do be sure to do your homework. Run a Google search on the name of the investigator and his company to see if he is an expert in email tracing and identity theft investigations.

Ed Opperman of Opperman Investigations Inc has over 10 years experience in cyber crime investigations. The senior investigators at http://www.emailrevealer.com have over 35 years law enforcement experience and are experts in email tracing.