subject: Give A Brief History About Identity Theft [print this page] Identity theft is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to your personal and financial data. There are millions of people affected by identity theft crimes almost every year. Those people who are affected by this crime on an average spend thousands of dollars from their pockets along with several hours in bring the theft and cleaning up their credit.
Therefore one of the best ways to keep away from identity theft costing you money and time is to learn how you can avoid identity theft and stay safe from the crime. Identity theft basically occurs when the thieves get hold of any of your personal information. This can often be as little as compromising your date of birth and social security number.
There are different types of scams taking place which these thieves would make and through your information and these scams are generally called as phishing as the thief would be tossing their lure out while phishing around in hopes to reel you.
How does identity theft start?
Phishing scams generally start with just an email in your mailbox. It may seem just like an ordinary mail or from your credit card issuer. This might generally warn you of some kind of weird activity or say that your account would be cancelled just become your information needs verification or is out of date.
You would surely want to do that and just follow the link that is provided in the mail to provide your information. However the website you offer your information to might probably seem exactly like the real website of the bank. Unfortunately, this dummy website is owned by the thief and when you provide your bank account number with the password, you soon discover that you have been the next id theft victim.
Avoiding id theft
The federal trade commission has maintained identity theft awareness website which outlines three major steps to avoid id theft which are detect identity theft, dater id theft and defend id theft. Therefore with these three methods you can easily save you from all the damages and expenses.
Dater identity theft: first and foremost thing to avoid id theft is to deter the thieves. Do not offer the thieves a change to get your financial or personal information. This also includes being watchful with your financial and personal data. Therefore,
Don't carry social security number in your wallet
Secure financial data with a good service provider
Burn or shred old personal or financial documents if not needed
Use secure passwords and change it often
Use secure computing methods
Detect id theft
You then have to detect id theft in case it has occurred. The sooner you react the easier to limit the damages to your credit. Therefore monitor your credit report frequently and instantly report if there are any changes. The best way you can detect id theft is using a Use a professional service provider to monitor your credit who can inform if there are any changes in your financial and personal data.
Defend id theft
Defending id theft is also important which can be done by instantly reporting identity theft to the FTC and police.
