How You Can Protect Your Credit From Identity Theft
Identity theft is one of the most rampant crimes in America today. It is simply too easy to commit, because so much of our personal information today is out there to be had by anyone willing to make the effort. Once they have it, they can open credit accounts without your knowledge for anything from a car to credit cards to even a house.
There are a lot of firms in existence today that can help you protect your credit from this kind of assault but the majority of them can only step in when an application for new credit is made. We can teach you steps that you can take to prevent it from happening in the first place and you might be surprised at just how easy it is to do.
What Thieves Look For
In order to use your credit for their own gain, a person looking to pull off an identity theft needs as much of your personal information as they can get. Your name, your social security number and any banking or credit card information will allow them to open accounts in department stores, rent vehicles or apply for a loan with just the basic information. For this reason, you need to protect that information as much as you can, by taking steps to make sure that no one can access it at will.
Shredding and Going Paperless
If you get credit card statements and other bills delivered to your home through the mail, the first thing you can do to prevent your information being stolen is to switch to paperless billing, if possible. Thieves are not above stealing your mail from the mailbox and they are also likely to go through your trash to retrieve the information they need. Shredding documents before throwing them away will help, as will black stamps that completely cover sensitive information and make it unreadable.
Watch Out For Online Predators
With literally everyone going on the Internet every single minute of every day, the chances of your personal information falling into the wrong hands increases exponentially with every online transaction you make.
If you must make banking transactions, pay bills or make purchases online, do so only within domains whose address begins with https. This indicates that the site has been made secure and that any personal information that you upload to that site is protected.
Any passwords that you use on these sites should be unique but something that you can remember readily. Just be sure to not use any elements that can be easily identified or match any of your personal information. Dedicated thieves will haunt social networking sites looking for clues they can use to crack your passwords, so avoid the obvious and stick with the obscure.
Avoid Phishers
Another trick that is often used is to send bogus emails that appear to be from legitimate companies to potential targets of identity theft. These emails will often say that a problem has occurred in one of your existing credit card accounts, your bank accounts or even PayPal, and you must reply with all of your necessary information to verify your identity. This process is known as phishing and if you receive any of these call that company’s customer service to verify.
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