You receive a call of your bank requesting that you authenticate a purchase that was made at a Walmart in Wisconsin amounting to 217. The only problem? You are sitting on your couch in Texas. It is like you have fallen prey to financial identity theft. An unknown person has somehow acquired your personal banking or credit card details and has tried to make a purchase in your name. Fortunately, your bank considered that one purchase in Wisconsin when you were otherwise accumulating everything in Texas was suspicious and brought your attention to the issue before anything serious was involved. But that isn’t always the case. According to the Identity Fraud Study of 2021, in the year 2020 consumers were robbed of $56 billion due to identity fraud. What Is Identity Theft? Identity theft occurs when an individual uses your personal information such as name, credit card number or social security number to commit fraud using your personal information. They have various methods of getting your information which include: Physical theft:Stealing your wallet or purse (with a credit card, driver license or social security card inside) physically. Credit card skimming:A scoundrel may install a gadget referred to as a card skimmer on any card reader in order to gather your credit card details. This is more so in gas stations. Phishing:This is an email that purports to be a legitimate one that is trying to get personal details. Data breach: This is when one gains access to stored information without consent. According to the Risk Based Security, 36 billion records have been compromised due to data breach between January and September of 2020. After having your personal details, one can go further and use it against you by using your bank account, issuing new credit cards, taking your tax refund, and using your health insurance among other things depending on the information that the person has gotten. The 7 steps of preventing identity theft You consider it and in many different ways, you use your personal information on a day-to-day basis. And each and every time you share such information, you make yourself a victim of identity theft. Luckily, not all things are difficult and every person is able to do something easy to reduce the risk of identity theft. 1. Subscribe to an identity protection service Identity protection service is a wonderful idea to protect your identity. Though typically subscription based, they have services such as credit checks, username and password monitors and they may even go as far as to search the dark web to find cases of your personal data. Such services will notify you of any arrears and in many cases reimburse money lost. 2. Run your credit reports Each of the three major credit reporting bureaus Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian are required to provide a free credit report once in a span of one year. Running your credit report should become a habit of yours to ensure that you notice anything suspicious which may be an indication of identity theft. Reporting should be staggered across the year to ensure that you are not further than a few months away between having a run report. 3. Don’t reuse your passwords The passwords to your online account must be different. They are also expected to be hard to guess because they include letters, numbers and special characters and longer than 10-15 characters. Never use real words or personal identifiable information. Do not write down your passwords. Password manager is also a convenient app that can also keep a record of all your passwords and even provide you with a complicated password once you have to create another password. 4. Beware of unsolicited telephone calls Do not provide personal information on the telephone. Although you may be reasonably sure that it is your bank calling on the other end, it is never bad to inform the person that you will call the bank using a number that you are certain about. Threats should not work, no matter how insistent the individual is. No one will ever call you by the IRS, and nobody has to access your computer. 5. Shred those documents Destroy any records that contain personal identifiable information. Credit card bills, benefits description, utilities. The identity thieves will search the trash in search of information, which they can utilize to steal your identity. In case you do not have a personal shredder, then you need to confirm that your community has a regular shred day where you can safely dispose of your documents. 6. Do not be too revealing on social media We have all encountered entertaining games on Facebook, your first car and the name of your dog is your rockstar name. Jeep Sprinkles? Or are the two possible answers to security questions that I have just provided to everyone? You should be keen on anything that makes you give personal information. You do not have to tell anybody your grandmother’s name, the name of the street you lived in, what concert you attended first. 7. Freeze your credit Freezing your credit basically means that nobody is allowed to access your credit information. This does not allow a credit score to be opened on your name as creditors will not be able to check your credit. In order to freeze your credit, you must address all three credit bureaus and request that they freeze your credit. In case you require to unfreeze your credit to apply in a valid loan or line of credit, you will be issued with a PIN. Another measure that is used to prevent child identity theft is to freeze the credit of a child. 8. Don’t click that link Do not follow a link that is not known to you. It may install viruses, which steal personal data. And take particular care over phishing. It may seem that the email is written by a familiar person, yet there is something a little out of order with the link that
