And with that availability comes more opportunity for identity theft. But with awareness, you can minimize the chance that you will fall victim to any number of scams. There are seven specific practices you should adopt to keep yourself safe online.

1. Protect your personal information. Criminals send e-mails, texts or pop-up messages that are designed to appear legitimate and will ask for your personal information. This practice is called “phishing.” The message will ask you to click on a link that will take you to another website in order to update your information or claim a prize or benefit. Legitimate businesses never use such methods to ask for your personal information.

To avoid phishing scams, don’t reply to these types of messages. When dealing with a bank or credit card company online, make sure you know the site is secure and that you know for sure it is legitimate. You can call the organization to verify before responding.

If you are shopping online, don’t provide any personal information through the company’s website until you know the site is secure. If there is a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a website URL that begins with “https,” then you know it’s secure. Be sure to review the company’s posted privacy policy and make sure you understand it. If you can’t understand it or even find it, consider doing business somewhere else.

2. Know who you’re dealing with. Look for a working phone number and call it to make sure it’s a working number. Check for unfavorable reports on that business. If there’s any doubt, take your business elsewhere.

3. Use security software that updates automatically. At minimum, your computer should have anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and a firewall. Run these programs periodically, and if there are any files identified as problematic, delete them.

4. Keep your operating system and web browser up to date, and learn about their security features. Hackers will take advantage of operating system software that doesn’t have the latest security updates. If you aren’t using your computer, turn it off.

5. Protect your passwords. Keep them in a secure place and out of sight. Don’t share them on the Internet, through e-mail or on the phone. Your Internet service provider should not ask for your password. Make it tough for hackers to figure out your passwords: use passwords that have at least eight characters and include numbers and symbols. Don’t use your personal information, change them regularly, and don’t use the same password for each online account you access.

6. Back up important files. If you have important files stored on your computer, copy them to a removable disk or external hard drive and store it in a safe place.

7. Learn what to do in an emergency. If you suspect there’s malware on your computer, stop shopping, banking or any other online activities that involve user names, passwords or other sensitive information. Use your security software to scan your computer for problems, and delete everything that the program identifies as a problem.

LifeLock’s eRecon™ feature can search the web for any illegal selling or trading of your personal information. If any such activity is detected, you will be alerted and LifeLock will help you take steps to resolve the problem.

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Albert Gonzalez

But that was then. Now the cyber-world black market is awash with stolen “dumps,” the data from the magnetic strips on the back of bank and credit cards. Ironically, when Albert Gonzalez hijacked the computers at Hannaford Brothers, Heartland Payment Systems and other corporations, and stole account information on 170-million and credit cards, he flooded the market, and effectively drove down the value of the stolen data.

When the VerizonBusiness 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report came out earlier this year, their analysts had found prices to be as low as $.50 per credit card account.

Virus analysts at Kaspersky Lab examine malware found on the Internet or their customers’ servers, and sometimes they can work their way back through a maze of redirects to find the thieves’ lair. This week, Dmitry Bestuzhev, one of the Kaspersky analysts, wrote a blog post on Viruslist.com describing a site he discovered that offers stolen credit card numbers from all over the world.

Prices ranged from $2 to $6, with the lower priced cards being from the U.S. and the more expensive card coming from Germany. On the site are drop down menus allowing customers to specify what kind and how many cards they want and from what country of origin. The dealers even offer technical support and guarantees.

Identity thieves can buy, sell and trade identity information over the Internet in seconds. LifeLock’s eRecon™ patrols over 10,000 criminal websites, monitoring the Internet for the illegal selling of your information, and notifies you if your personal information is found being misused online.

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The crimes in which Tuknov is alleged to have played a part are an example of the complex and convoluted nature of international identity theft rings.

Tuknov was working with sources in Russia who sent him stolen debit card numbers and related PINs, according to the indictment. Tuknov relayed that information to an associate in the Dominican Republic who then encoded it onto blank debit cards.

The newly encoded cards were then delivered to other criminals in New York City, where they were used to make ATM cash withdrawals from the victims’ accounts, prosecutors say. The money was sent to the initial sources in Russia.

Once Tuknov’s Russian associates received the cash, they sent him more numbers and his commission for coordinating the tortuous criminal activity.

Total losses for the crime ring’s victims are thought to be roughly $371,000.

LifeLock, the award winning identity theft protection service, has recently developed eRecon™ a new tool against identity theft rings. Because stolen identities are often bought, sold and traded over the Internet, eRecon monitors more than 10,000 Internet websites and chat rooms used by identity thieves.

If any of their clients’ information—name, Social Security number, account numbers, etc.—is detected, Life Lock immediately notifies their customer and assists them in canceling accounts and notifying the appropriate authorities.

Visit their website at LifeLock.com to learn more about eRecon™ and their other exclusive services. If you decide to enroll in the identity theft protection program used by almost 1.5 million Americans, use the LifeLock promo code Defense for a discount on service and a 30 day trial.