Scammers are making the best use of the fact that nowadays people are largely dependent on the Internet for various things. For example, people are spending a lot of their time online buying products, chatting with family and friends, browsing information, playing games, and networking through social media websites. In the process, a lot of information is shared online, and if due precautions are not taken, the risk of identity theft increases. In the past few years, the number of masterplans complaints against online identity thefts has increased substantially and therefore you should not take this matter casually.

You can reduce your chances of falling prey to masterplans of .com scammers simply by taking adequate precautions and staying informed. Identity theft occurs when somebody uses your personal information to open new accounts like securing a credit card or getting a personal loan. In such cases, usually the victim does not realize that they have been scammed until they start getting calls from the creditors regarding payments. Careful analysis of masterplans complaints reveal that in most of such cases, the victim has been casual with their personal information and they have not exercised the much-needed precautions to stay protected.

So, what can you do to protect yourself from identity thefts? First and foremost thing is that you should never share your personal information with just anybody online. This does not mean that you stop creating accounts with trusted websites or you refrain from buying online; it means you become extra cautious while divulging your personal details and check the credentials of online sources before dealing with them.

Using strong passwords and keeping them safe is another important precaution that you must exercise to stay protected. Do not use the same password for multiple accounts; if any one website has weak security, your password could be easily hacked and all your accounts would become vulnerable. It is best to use alphanumeric passwords with special characters as they are hard to crack. Moreover, never save your passwords in files on your computer or write it on a paper. What if your system gets hacked or you lose the paper. If you get a pop-up screen asking if you want to save your password, never say "yes," else the password will be saved in your system files and hackers can access it and use your identity.

The most common method used by scammers for stealing personal information is phishing. In this kind of scam, the scammer takes you to a fake website that is used for capturing sensitive information. For instance, you receive an e-mail that appears to have been sent by your bank. The sender asks you to update your personal information by clicking on the link. Once you click on the link, you are taken to a fake website that looks exactly like your bank’s website. All the data you feed there is used by the scammer to misuse your identity.