Most modern-day criminals have gone the hi-tech route because of the increasing support of highly organized e-fraud syndicates and their unlimited resources. For them, crime doesn't only pay, it pays more if you're a skilled hacker. Moreover, a lot of these online outlaws are outwitting even the most Internet-savvy users by ingeniously ensnaring them into their state-of-the-art phishing spoof sites. These crooks' bag-of-tricks have become comprehensive and advanced enough to produce clever site copies that even most security experts are hard-pressed to differentiate from the real thing.

Spoofed or bogus sites are carefully made traps used by scammers to capture a victim's personal credentials, account information, and so on. These important bits of data can then be used for bank fraud or sold on the international black market. All the same, once consumers acquire the right information and guidelines on how to handle this ever-growing IT security hazard, they should be able to keep themselves and their valuable information from harm's way. Knowledge is power, and identity thieves mostly prey on their targets' blissful ignorance to make their scams succeed.

At any rate, the information that people have been desperately seeking ever since this type of cyber crime started to spread is available for free on trustthecheck.com. It is an educational web portal developed by VeriSign in order to provide online users the tips and techniques necessary to keep themselves protected from Internet scams so that they can book flights, trade stocks, bank, and shop safely on the worldwide web without any worries whatsoever.

In summary, the Trust the Check webpage allows people to:

• Have an online anti-phishing and anti-scamming crash course.
• Read through a variety of anecdotes from numerous people who have been victimized by this dangerous and ever-growing cyber security threat.
• Learn about matters like phishing, encryption, worms, viruses, malware, trojans, identity protection, and the like.
• Get the latest reports on the newest phishing email or web scam that's been making the rounds.
• Learn what to look for when verifying the legitimacy of a site.

The Trust the Check website also makes these important safety procedures completely accessible to people in a multitude of ways other than the Internet: Their comprehensive database can be obtained through Parent-Teacher Associations, the Federal Trade Commission, and so on.