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What Is Identity Theft?
Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used
to refer to all types of crime in which someone
wrongfully obtains and uses another person's
personal data in some way that involves fraud or
deception, typically for economic gain.
These Web pages are intended to explain why
you need to take precautions to protect yourself
from identity theft.
In the United States and Canada, for example, many
people have reported that unauthorized persons
have taken funds out of their bank or financial
accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their
identities altogether, running up vast debts and
committing crimes while using the victims's names.
In many cases, a victim's losses may include not
only out-of-pocket financial losses, but
substantial additional financial costs associated
with trying to restore his reputation in the
community and correcting erroneous information for
which the criminal is responsible. The solution is
a comprehensive Identity Theft Protection
plan.
If your identity is stolen, what would you do?
call your bank and/or credit card company? contact
the three major credit repositories? go through
the helpful but expensive steps recommended by the
Federal Trade Commission in it's 30-page consumer
support publication? fill out and submit the
affidavit form supplied by the FTC to dispute new,
unauthorized accounts? spend on average $1,500 in
out-of-pocket expenses and an average of 175 hours
in your efforts to resolve the many problems
caused by identity fraud?
When it comes to preventing identity fraud,
you can't entirely control whether you will become
a victim. But there are certain steps you can take
to minimize recurrences.
What To Do Today: Place passwords on your
credit card, bank, and phone accounts. Avoid using
easily available information like your mother's
maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits
of your SSN or your phone number, or a series of
consecutive numbers. When opening new accounts,
you may find that many businesses still have a
line on their applications for your mother's
maiden name. Ask if you can use a password
instead. Secure personal information in your home,
especially if you have roommates, employ outside
help, or are having work done in your home. Ask
about information security procedures in your
workplace or at businesses, doctor's offices or
other institutions that collect your personally
identifying information
Maintaining Vigilance: Don't give out
personal information on the phone, through the
mail, or on the Internet unless you've initiated
the contact or are sure you know who you're
dealing with. Identity thieves are clever, and
have posed as representatives of banks, Internet
service providers (ISPs), and even government
agencies to get people to reveal their SSN,
mother's maiden name, account numbers, and other
identifying information. . Identity
fraud thieves may create phony promotional
offers to get you to give them your personal
information. Keep your purse or wallet in a
safe place at work; do the same with copies of
administrative forms that have your sensitive
personal information. When ordering new checks,
pick them up from the bank instead of having them
mailed to your home mailbox.
You may be careful about locking your doors and
windows, and keeping your personal papers in a
secure place. Depending on what you use your
personal computer for, an identity thief may not
need to set foot in your house to steal your
personal information. You may store your SSN,
financial records, tax returns, birth date, and
bank account numbers on your computer. These tips
can help you keep your computer - and the personal
information it stores - safe.Virus protection
software should be updated regularly, and patches
for your operating system and other software
programs should be installed to protect against
intrusions and infections that can lead to the
compromise of your computer files or passwords.
Identity Theft Information and Education:
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