Identity Theft Protection Techniques

No matter what you think about your own financial security, crimes like identity theft can happen to anyone. You, along with everyone else in the world, stand a huge risk of becoming the next victim of an identity thief who is looking to steal another person’s ID in order to reap benefits he or she does not hold the right to. If you happen to have your identity and personal information stolen, you can face serious financial loss as well as moral and social issues.

Dangers of Identity Theft

There are two ways a hacker or a cyber thief can steal your identity and use it to their advantage. He or she can record your passwords and personal information, and either use it to create new accounts using your information, a false identity, or access your pre-existing bank accounts, spend money and register services under your name.

These scams come in many different shapes and sizes. It can be an email you receive from a source that claims to require your banking information for critical business related to your account, and you may send them what they ask for, not knowing it is actually an identity thief looking to coax out what he needs from you. Such thefts have caused well established businesses to fail and for people to lose everything they have saved.

These thieves can also hack into your computer through simple viruses that may arrive to you through spam emails or scam websites that require your personal information for logins.

Once you become a victim of identity theft, you can never know how many more out there might be aware of your data that must remain private.

How to Minimize Risk of ID Theft

It is quite evident that having your ID stolen is not a thing that should be ignored or taken lightly. Prevention is better than the cure; but in this case, prevention becomes almost impossible as you do not always know what ways you can be compromised. Yet, you can significantly reduce your risk of becoming a target by performing some simple steps.

1. Your information can easily be stolen from your credit and debit cards. Which is why you must be extremely careful when using them around town. Always monitor your transactions online to make sure no extra payments are being made. If you notice a disturbance, report it immediately.
2. Keep photocopies of your essential financial documents in a safe place so you can refer to them and report to the respective companies in case of stolen or misused personal information.
3. Do not give your bank account specifications or Social Security Number to anyone you do not completely know or trust.
4. Keep your credit card receipts, save or shred them – do not throw them away as they can be picked up and used by anyone.
5. You should never use the same passwords for every account you make. Make your passwords unrelated to you, long, and complex so you are less prone to being hacked.
6. Installing a firewall in your computer can help to ward off any hacker looking to hack into your hard drive.
7. Any emails from banks asking you to confirm personal information might be ‘phishing’ mails. Do not respond to them unless you know for sure they are the real thing.

How to Protect your Identity

You can always contact the companies you are affiliated with to make your accounts more secure and keep you updated on any privacy changes. Be sure to contact your banking institution whenever you suspect fraudulent activity on your account.

The IRS provides on their website a list of links and organizations you can contact in the case you have your ID stolen. You can also gain further information on different types of ID theft from USA.gov, and you can report to the Federal Trade Commission regarding any suspected fraud that your bank is unable to handle.

We hope this article has been informative and assists you in your pursuit of a more secure identity!