Identity Theft
Posted on August 24, 2008
A federal offense for ten years now, identity theft seems to have just started getting a lot of media coverage in the last 2 or 3 years. Does that mean it’s getting a lot worse? Actually, believe it or not, things are improving some. The number of victims and the amount stolen has decreased plus the time factor to straighten things out has improved a lot. According to a recent survey, the number of victims of identity theft in the U.S. fell by almost 20% over the last four years. The time required to fix the damage in each case was down an average of 40%.
Most of the losses in an identity theft are ‘eaten’ by credit issuers and banks, as victims are rarely held responsible for fraudulent debts occurring in their name. But victims often bear the responsibility of notifying the banks and other institutions after an identity theft has occurred.
Even with the improving numbers, finding out that your credit card has been used by a stranger can do a number on you. As usual, prevention is the best medicine.
To beat the thieves, keep these practices:
• Protect your Social Security number. This is perhaps the most important information about you. Don’t carry your card, and, if possible, don’t even tell anyone the number.
• Shred anything that has your name, address, and other personal information. Use a cross-cut shredder, not a strip-cut shredder, because cross-cutting creates fragments that are much harder to piece back together.
• Don’t provide personal information to people who contact you over the phone, through the mail, or by e-mail. Ask them how you can get in touch with them so you can investigate. You might start with a simple Internet search for complaints, or check with the Better Business Bureau.
• Keep sensitive documents in a secure place. Birth certificates, Social Security cards, tax returns, insurance policies, and the like should go in a fireproof safe or at least a locked drawer at home, or in a safety deposit box in a vault.
• Never give anyone your password for anything. No tech or customer service rep should ever ask you what your password is. This is a dead giveaway that you’re dealing with a potential identity thief or, at best, an incompetent support tech.
• Don’t use a weak or obvious password like your birth date or dog’s name. Strong passwords incorporate capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and, if possible, non-alphanumeric characters.
• Protect your PC. You absolutely must run a software firewall, antispyware, and antivirus software.>
• Don’t go phishing. Don’t click links in unsolicited e-mail like my wife did when asked to click a link that came in her Yahoo mail and looked very official to her. It never crossed her mind that we have never communicated with our bank via Yahoo mail. We were fortunate as she did put in her password, but got a call from our bank in a few hours asking if anyone should be trying to take money out of our account from Romania. You’ll find that most institutions are actively monitoring for that kind of activity now and that is likely one of the prime reasons that thefts are down so drastically.
• Don’t enter information on strange Web sites. Don’t even enter information on familiar Web sites that have changed recently. Call the company and ask if they’ve redesigned their site. Always check a site’s encryption before entering personal information—look for https:// in the address bar, along with an icon indicating that VeriSign or another independent party has certified the site as secure.
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