COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) -- The holiday season is upon us, and for a lot of us, that means online shopping by finding the bargains with the click of the mouse rather than fighting those holiday crowds.

The next online step may be to check that bank account as well to make sure those purchases will clear, and if your session times out, you might just login again, but just like that, you may have become a victim of tab nabbing.

The hacker will create a web page that looks identical to the one that you were just on and ask you to re-enter your user name and password, and once you do that, the hacker now has access to whatever account that you thought that you were signing onto.

Tab nabbing is the newest of online scams that puts your personal online info, social security number, financial information, and passwords at risk. The problem comes when you forget to completely close out a page or "tab" online before opening the next.

So what happens if you do become a victim? You have a few options. You may put a free fraud alert on your credit report. You do this by calling one of three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Transunion, or Experian. They will notify the other two agencies, and for ninety days, creditors and lenders have to take extra steps to make sure it is you asking for the services. You'll also receive free credit reports.

Carri Lybarker with the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs says, "It's really meant for those who think they are a victim, to give them the access to the credit reports, and to make sure that vendors or creditors are taking extra steps to make sure it's them who is trying to get the credit."

Lybarker says if you want to take steps before becoming a victim, go ahead and place a security freeze on your credit report. In this case you must contact each of those three agencies, and no one will have access to your credit report until a Personal Identification Number is provided or you thaw or lift that freeze.

The security freeze is something that is certainly utilized proactively. If you know that you aren't going to open up credit in the near future go ahead and freeze it so that no one else can get the access either.

If you would like more security tips or to get the contact information for the credit reporting agencies, click here to read the Security Tips document from the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs.

Related Link:
Security Freeze - South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs