Lawrence Robreno knows the misery of having his identity stolen.
He says, "They pretended they were me... calling up, making phone calls with my name, using my credit card, my information."
Like more than a million others in the last year, Lawrence had his identity stolen while shopping online.
Lawrence adds, "They started out small in 15, 25-dollar increments, and they slowly increased. I tallied it up to somewhere close to $25,000."
Consumer Reports' Dean Gallea has this word of caution... only shop at sites you trust. And it's essential to protect your computer from spyware, viruses, and spam by installing security software.
Consumer Reports tested security suites costing between 50 and 90 dollars. But Dean found free security software that's on par with the best.
To fight viruses: Anti Vir from free-dash-a-v-d.com. To prevent spyware: Windows Defender from microsoft.com.
And to avoid spam... Spamfighter standard from spamfighter.com.
You also want to protect against phishing. These emails look like they come from banks and other companies, but are actually lures to gain access to your accounts.
Dean warns, "Never click on links in emails that go to banks or other sites that have your personal information."
Instead, type the company's web address into your browser. And for more protection, Consumer Reports recommends downloading free anti-phishing sofware, such as the McAfee Site Advisor, which warns when you go to a dangerous site.
Consumer Reports says Apple computers are much less likely to be attacked by viruses and spyware.
But since Macs can transmit infected files to Windows pcs even within a home network, Consumer Reports recommends installing an anti-virus program... such as Norton Antivirus 11 for Mac. It costs 50-dollars.