Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

Identity theft is defined as another person or group of people that steal your personal and financial information in order to commit a crime or fraud. There are many ways in which a criminal or organization can collect your identity information and use it in a fraudulent manner; understanding how your identity information is obtained can help you to protect yourself from most types of identity theft crimes. Here are some tips.

Common ways in which your identity information can be obtained is through common acts of theft such as your wallet or purse being stolen, Stealing mail out of your mail box that might contain special financial information such as account numbers and name and address info, looking through your trash for important documents and information, and acquiring it through email.

Common Theft

If your wallet or purse has become lost or stolen, it is extremely important to contact your credit card companies, credit reporting agencies and to make a police report. It might take a few minutes for your credit cards to be used or a few months for other types of identity theft and fraud to occur with the information that is found in your wallet or purse. While it is impractical not to carry your important credit cards with you, if you are robbed, make sure you have a plan of action to notify the proper authorities in a quick and orderly manner.

Shred Your Documents

Theft such as important documents from your garbage does occur. Many laws do allow others to sift through your garbage and you will be surprised how easy it is to determine a persons identity and financial information from the documents that one throws away. If you are planning on throwing away documents with personal or financial information, make sure you first shred it before tossing it in the garbage; this will greatly reduce any incidence of identity theft through the garbage.

Email and Phishing Scams

Email and phishing scams are quite frequent and are a major source of identity fraud. Here is a tip to protect yourself from the vast majority of identity theft on the web. If any entity through an email or web site requests personal information or financial information from you, do not directly input your information. Instead contact the entity directly to make sure they are the ones that are legitimately requesting your personal or financial information.

For instance, if an email requests you to click a link and enter your personal or financial information, simply close the email and visit the source of the request (i.e. the bank or company web site). Usually there will be a message waiting for you to input specific information. If not contact the company directly to find out if they require any information from you.

Connie Barker is the owner of an Identity Theft\r website.

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