Unfortunately, identity theft is becoming more commonplace every year. There has been an upswing in the theft of personal information like social security numbers, bank account information and credit card data. According to the Federal Trade Commission, over 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Yet there are ways to fight back against these criminals. The best way to do so is to prevent identity thieves from accessing your information in the first place. Below, we take a look at some critical identity theft prevention techniques.
Identity Theft Protection Services
Many Americans have taken advantage of identity theft prevention products offered by financial institutions and an assortment of other companies. These services protect identity by monitoring credit ratings, lines of credit and banking transactions. An individual who pays for such a protection service and has his identity stolen will be empowered to obtain reimbursement for lost funds or wages. Even some employers offer identity theft insurance so that employees don’t have to waste valuable effort, time and money to recover from the theft of their information.
Shop Online With Caution
While identity theft prevention services are helpful, it is much more prudent to take preventative steps that don’t cost anything. The majority of Americans shop online but don’t take the time to safeguard the information that they enter into online payment forms. Be sure to clear out your password and login information on websites where you make purchases. Always change your passwords and login details every couple of months. Try to avoid making online purchases on public computers as your data might be saved on those machines and accessed by others.
Instead of performing your online shopping with your bank’s debit card, use your credit card. There are extensive federal laws that guarantee the safety of your information and reimbursement for false charges when you use a credit card. Those same safeguards are much more limited when you use a debit card to shop.
Online shoppers should be aware of a trick commonly used by identity thieves called phishing. This trick creates pop up windows and spam that resemble websites and forms from actual banks and other businesses in an attempt to spur users to enter their personal information. This information is then used to access the user’s financial accounts and make extensive purchases. So, be sure that you are actually on a legitimate website with an “s” after the “http” section of text that precedes the web address at the top of your browser. The “s” indicates that you are on a secure website where your information won’t be stolen.
Read Over Your Monthly Statements
Take the time and effort to study your monthly credit card and bank statements. Look for any charges that you don’t remember making. These should be pretty obvious unless you are a frequent shopper or if you refuse to use cash for purchases. If this is the case, keep your eyes peeled for any charges made at retailers that you usually don’t frequent and retailers found outside of your area.
Monitor Your Credit Report
Take a close look at your credit report on an annual basis. The law states that you can access your credit report for free once per year. Any of the three credit bureaus will provide your report. They are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can stay on top of your credit report’s contents by requesting it from each of the bureaus every four months. Just use a different bureau each time. To obtain the report, contact the bureaus directly or head on over to www.annualcreditreport.com. Once you receive it, look for any false charges and any credit cards or bank accounts that you have not actually opened yourself. Another good method for watching your credit accounts is to use a free or paid credit monitoring service plan. These are generally monthly subscriptions that will monitor nearly all aspects of your credit and personal information. If any unusual activity that may appear to be fraud show up, the company will alert you immediately so you can prevent the situation from becoming worse. Companies such as LifeLock and IdentityGuard are popular options and cost in the $10-$30 per month range.
Check Your Mailing Address
Be sure to verify your mailing address with the United States Postal service and any institutions that you have credit or bank accounts with. Identity thieves are known to complete change of address forms in order to have communications from creditors sent to addresses other than your own. After changing your address, thieves make extensive charges with your credit or debit card, avoid paying the bills and keep you completely out of the loop. So, take the time out once a year to ensure that these institutions have your proper address on file.
