Password protection and more: financial institutions continue to upgrade online security.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa

Imagine going to use your ATM card and finding that you can't gain access to your account, or that the money you thought was in your account is no longer there. Or you try to open a credit card account, only to find that your application has been denied because your identity is no longer yours.

As technology has advanced, so have the means that criminals use to gain access to other people's money. But the good news is that banks and other financial institutions are working just as hard to make sure that their customers' money is always protected.

"There are people out there who are very talented, who try their best to cheat people out of their money," said Keith Fernandez of Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union. "It's a shame, because if these people used their talents for good, they could probably make even more money in a positive way. But because they are always finding new ways to try to take people's money, we have to continue to find new ways to protect our customers from online theft attempts."

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

There are a number of ways that criminals try to take people's hard-earned dollars ranging from phishing, to ATM skimming, to something as basic as Dumpster diving. Through these means, criminals can steal a person's name, contact information and other personal information to commit fraud or other crimes for their own financial gain. According to Symantic Corp.'s most recent Internet Security Threat Report, 7.92 million daily phishing attempts were identified during the last half of 2005, an increase of more than 5.7 million per day since the first half of 2005.

Online phishing occurs when a person receives a fraudulent e-mail in which the criminal poses as a legitimate company asking for contact or credit card information. Some criminals even go so far as to create fake Web sites that closely resemble that of a bank or financial institution and then ask that the receiver update their account information online. ID thieves can also capture ATM information by 'skimming,' in which they attach a data storage device to an ATM machine that then records your information when you swipe your card.

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Simplest of all of these methods is dumpster diving, in which thieves go through a person's trash to find bank or credit card information, or go through his or her mail to find credit card offers, checks, tax information or more. Thieves may also fill out a change-of-address card in another person's name and send it...