Posts Tagged ‘identity theft protection’

Can We Prevent Identity Theft?

April 7th, 2010

According to the F. T. C, there are approximately 10 million adult American citizens who become victims of identity theft each year. Identity theft describes a range of crimes including theft of social security numbers, card info, and other personal information. It frequently leaves its victims in fiscal ruin and can require ages to straighten out financial records and credit reports.

Who gets hit with identity theft? Is it only folks who are slovenly about handing out their identification? The quick answer is no. Anyone could be a victim of identity theft because personal information is never really secure.

Although we can't stop identity theft altogether, we will be able to minimize the possibility of it happening in several ways.

  1. Only give out personal information if you know the source and trust it's secure. This includes Mastercard numbers, passwords, and account numbers. Don't give out your credit card number over a public telephone when others are in earshot. Don't punch the number into a touch tone phone where the tones can be caught. If you have to use your Mastercard remotely, transact over a secure website that you have faith in. You'll be able to say if the website is secure because the URL will start with “https” rather than “http”.
  2. Invest in a top notch cross-cut shredder. Many cases of identity theft occur because the thief has sorted thru the rubbish of the victim and gleaned critical identification. Any mail which has your name or any identifying info should be shredded and then was discarded. This includes all solicitations and offers by Visa card corporations. Also shred all old invoices and tax documents as well as expired credit cards.
  3. Check the standing and transactions on your credit accounts constantly. Make sure you know each exchange on the statements and check to confirm that the statements are being brought to your house monthly. Better yet , go paperless and have e-mail notifications of online statements sent to you to attenuate the paper statements drifting around that can be appropriated by thieves.
  4. Order a copy of your credit report from the three major credit reporting agencies ( Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union ) at least annually and review each item on the statements for accuracy. Query balances and delinquencies that do not look familiar. You can report suspected identity theft to each of the three agencies right away if you find weird activity on your reports.
  5. Enroll with corporations that specialized in Identity theft protection such as LifeLock and Identity Guard. These corporations provide numerous ID theft protection from as straightforward as monitoring your Mastercard activities to as sophisticated as searching the web for the illegal selling of your private info.

Acting to protect yourself will help you to avoid turning into the victim of identity theft. Treat your private info as carefully as the cash in your pocket. It can have the same effects if it is robbed.

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