Its worth noting that most fraud and identity theft isnt from them stealing your information from a company, its from them tricking you into giving it to them.
I’ve heard of people paranoid about Paypal, their own banks (they wont do online banking etc…) because of these issues. But as far as banks are concerned the information that a good hacker can get they can get with or without you, and with or without you using online service. Your bank uses a few systems like the internet (if not the internet with VPN) and anything on that same network (like ahem, ATMS) could be used to get in…
You may wonder then why dont they? The good hackers (good in skill) tend to be good morally. Not all but most of the best hackers tend to work for us not against us. Think about it like this – Alot of them are running their own companys hacking legally into large companys computers. They get to ‘play’ and they make money LEGALLY. There are some so called ‘black hat’ hackers who are good too, but theres only so many tricks they can use, and banks tend to be paranoid.
This may or may not be true but I heard at one point it was easier to get into the governments systems then a large banks. Again – don’t know if its true.
Most of the ways identity theft happens is lying, or playing you to get your information.
Heres a couple quick examples:
I just 700 Million Euros from some international company, real check for 4,730 to cover legal expences and to pay for my entry.
I’ve never heard of this company, but this other company randomly selected my email address and entered me on my behalf.
Sounds great dosnt it? All i have to do is send them $3,000 or so back, the rest of the first check will be taken out of my winnings, great right? Yeah right, the check is a fraud and when an unspespecting person sends the money for the winnings, the check is in ‘hold’ status, meaning you may be able to spend the money, but you havnt gotten it yet… then they get your money and right around then the check bounces. POOF you owe money if you didnt have the $3,000 in your bank account to start with, and if you did… you just lost it.
You go in and login, but it dosnt work… ok at this point they allready have your login information, but sometimes they want more so they give you a customer service number to call, etc etc. then ask for personal information.
if you dont type it in, then dont enter your information there. Dont trust email, I dont have a bank account with suntrust, yet i occasionly get an email telling me that my balance is over due and I need to login online to correct my problem. Gee thats obviously a fake. but what if you did have a suntrust account? or they happend to get lucky?
If you need to call lookup the 1-800 number. Call at odd times, call multiple times in a row if its not a machine. I think everybank uses an automated machine, scammers tend to not be able to afford them or arnt smart enough to set them up.
Am I paranoid about my information? Not really, I’m selective on who I’ll give it to, but not overly so. I wont fall for most scams because I dont do alot of sensitive information online! I get attempts at being scammed all the time. Go look up scam stories or some similar keywords and youl see it happens alot. Stay alert and cautious and youl be fine. If you want examples I’ll Forward you some of my millon, billion or, trillion dollar winning emails.
Nothings free, and nothings easy. Forex isnt free or easy, you have to pay the price in knowledge one way or another (time counts as money) and its not easy, not really hard once you get going, but most things are like that!
Just my .02*a few extra words 
