How Do E-Consumers Protect Their Equifax Credit Reports?

Answer 1

Electronic consumers are consumers that purchase through electronic means, specifically over the internet. E-consumers as they are called are compelled to carefully protect their identity from hackers or fraudulent enterprises. Learning how to avoid identity theft involves a number of step and a relatively high level of learning.

First, let's talk a little about what exactly identity theft is. Identity theft occurs when another person uses your personal identifying information, such as your name, birth date, credit card or social security number without your permission to commit a crime or other fraud. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, estimates that as many as 9 million Americans are victims of identity theft each year.

Identity theft can steal the identity of e-consumers just as easily as traditional consumers. They can do this by stealing credit or debit card numbers by phishing, a common practice of pretending to be a financial institution with whom you may have existing accounts and getting you to voluntarily reveal your personal information. This can be done by sending you an e-mail message that asks you to verify your personal information or asking you to verify your tax ID number. Phishing can also be done over the telephone by calling you under false pretenses and asking for your identifying information or credit card number.

E-consumers and traditional consumers can protect themselves by regularly obtaining their Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union credit reports – at least once a year, which is free – and scrutinizing the reports for discrepancies. Ensure that you use the secure websites of the credit reporting agencies to be certain you don't accidentally reveal your personal identifying information to a fraudulent website who may then use that information to rob you of money.

An Equifax credit report is just one of the major credit reporting agencies in the U.S. Once you've reviewed your credit report, and handled any discrepancies, be sure to shred or otherwise destroy the credit report as it contains vital information that someone who is willing to dumpster dive or obtain information about you by rooting through your trash doesn't get the information they need to steal your identity.

Some companies now offer identity theft protection services for a charge. The most common ones currently are: LifeLock and OnGuard Online, and both of these companies have websites advertising their services and fees.