In today's society, the criminal element is everywhere. Although you most likely won't see them, they are always lurking, waiting to strike at any opportunity. Identity theft is rapidly becoming one of the biggest threats to the Internet. Stealing credit card information has become the crime of choice for many people around the world.

The most common way for criminals to get credit card information is through phishing, which involves a fake email that appears to be sent from your credit card company. Normally, this fake email states that there was an error with your account, or that it was accessed by unauthorized personnel and needs your attention.

It is often no problem at all to spot these fake emails - for instance, if you get an email purporting to be from a company with which you do not have an account or credit card. There's another easy way to spot these scams. Move your cursor over the "from" line in the email. Click the right mouse button and you'll see the email address of the sender; if it doesn't match your credit card company's address, it's a dead giveaway.

Many people are unaware of this method, although it is a standard feature of any email program. The fake emails will have links to a spoofed version of the credit card company's website these will look nearly identical to the actual site, including the use of company logos and other design elements.

Those of you who have fell victim to this scam, probably realized what you have done little too late. Once you have entered in your credit card information, you have done exactly what the criminals wanted and put yourself in violation of credit card fraud and identity theft. Once the criminal has your social security number and credit card information, he is more than likely to use that information to go on a shopping spree stealing your money and running up your account.

If you receive an email such as this, you should always delete it. Even if you just click on the fake website to investigate, you may do more harm than good. Even though you may not enter any information at all, your computer may get infected with viruses or spyware simply because you clicked on the link. To avoid this altogether, you should never click on a link that you believe to be a fake credit card company website.

It is ultimately up to you to protect yourself. If you receive a suspicious email regarding your credit card account, it is recommended that you call the credit card company on the telephone and discuss it with them. Do not use the telephone number in the email, instead, find a statement and use the customer service number that is printed on that.

It is crucial to your financial well being that you take all of the necessary precautions to protect yourself.

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Nick Makaryk is a Owner who works with Best Credit Cards to help consumers make informed credit decisions. For easy to use online Credit Card Applications