Identity Theft Protection

Answer 1

At this point hundreds of thousands of Americans have fallen victim to identity theft, and the consequences can last years. Dozens of credit and law enforcement agencies have to be coaxed into undoing the damage, and oftentimes one’s reputation never quite recovers. So how can one go about protecting oneself against identity theft? Here are some tips to keeping your information safe.

Stop the Paper Trail

While identity theft sounds like some kind of sci-fi crime, in fact its main techniques are rather low tech. One popular means of gaining personal information is to dig through people’s garbage, looking for checks, bills and other paperwork that contain identifying information. This is why you should invest in a paper shredder and use it to destroy any papers that have your name, address or other identifying information on them.

Keep Your Computer Safe

Other identity thieves do in fact use high tech methods for stealing personal information. One way is to use “Trojan Horse” spyware to infect computers and send them personal information including credit card numbers. Most of the top anti-virus programs can keep these programs off of your computer, but you have to check your system regularly and keep the software updated in order to stay ahead of the thieves.

Identity thieves also engage in a practice known as “phishing” wherein they send you an email that seems to be from your bank, popular internet merchant sites or some other trusted organization, asking you to verify your financial or personal information. Because of these scams most legitimate institutions no longer ask for such information via email, and if you aren’t sure you should call the number you know will get to the real people and ask them to verify that they need your information.

Stay Informed of Your Record

You should regularly check your credit scores, and perhaps run regular background checks on yourself so you can catch any fraud as quickly as possible. There is no need to overdo it—once a year for a background check and perhaps two or three times a year for credit should be enough. There are also a variety of private services now offering to alert you anytime a new entry is made into such records so you can know if you have been victimized as soon as it happens, giving you the upper hand in stopping identity theft before it ruins your reputation.