subject: $ 745 Million Lost In Identity Theft Every Year! Are You Safe?? [print this page] How Do They Obtain Your Information? How Do They Obtain Your Information?
These thieves use various methods to obtain personal information. They get their information about other companies or institutions from stealing, bribing an employee who has access to documents, hacking in the archives, or conning information of employees. Once identity thieves have your personal information, they can use it for whatever means to commit fraud or theft in your name.
How Can You Tell if You Became A Victim of Identity Theft?
Some signs include unexplained charges or withdrawals from your financial accounts, bills or other mail stop arriving (the thief may have filed a change of address), a credit application is rejected for no apparent reason, and collectors Debt start calling for goods or services that you buy.
How to Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft?
Your computer can be a wealth of personal information to an identity thief. To protect yourself and your computer against identity theft consider:
Update anti-virus software regularly. Check to see if your antivirus software will update itself automatically. Windows XP/Vista/7 operating system can also be set to automatically check and download patches to your computer.
Do not open files sent by strangers, by clicking on hyperlinks or download programs from people or companies you do not know.
Use a software firewall, especially if you use an Internet connection to broadband like cable or DSL that leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day.
Provide your personal or financial information through the secure website of the single organization. Although not a panacea, a lock icon in the browser's status bar or a URL for a site that begins with "https" (the "s" means secure), may provide additional security.
Keep your financial data on your laptop unless absolutely necessary.
Remove all personal information stored on a computer before disposing of them. A sudden utility to overwrite the entire hard drive is recommended.
Sign Up with an Identity Theft Protection Service such as LifeLock (www.LifeLock.com). Lifelock operates a website designed to protect consumers against all kinds of identity theft. With a payment of $9/month, they contact the major credit bureaus on your behalf and help remove your name from mailing lists for preapproved credit offers. You can also access their database anytime you want to check for any fraudulent activities. Also, if any transactions deemed suspicious they will immediately contact you and send you a notification alert via email or other methods you choose to be contacted with (by the way their customer service is excellent and top of the field). They also search known criminal websites for illegal selling of your personal informationhelping to stop thieves before they have a chance to commit fraud. Plus their protection service includes stolen or lost wallet remediation services to help cancel and replace the contents of your wallet. They will help you contact your financial institutions and complete the necessary paperwork you need to get your life back in order. If you become a victim of identity theft while you are a LifeLock member due to a failure in our service, they will spend up to $1 million to hire experts, lawyers, investigators, consultants and whatever else it takes to help your recovery. [Click here to find out More]
As with any crime, you cannot completely control when you become a victim, but you can take steps to minimize the risk of working hard, and minimizing outside access to personal data.
Click here to Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft/Fraud
