Congratulations! You've won a $1,000 Walmart gift card. Go to http://bit.ly/123456 to claim now.
Oh! Yay!
Dear Hacker. You now have access to this individuals personal information. You now have the ability to potentially wipe out their entire bank account, ruin their credit history and credit score, and even take away their jobs or valuable possessions and essentially masquerade as that person!
MUAHAHAHAH
Have you ever seen a message like this on your phone and clicked on it? Well you might be a victim of attempted identity theft. Hackers and identity thieves may often try to access your personal information through these types of scams. It is important to be careful, as being a victim of identity theft can lead to serious issues.
But how can we avoid this type of trouble. One way to go about it is to never click on sketchy links like this, where you cannot confirm the sender, or if it seems too good to be true. It is usually a scam. Next, it is important to have virus protection if you are on a computer, as purely surfing the web can get you into a pickle with identity theft.