Identity Theft and Dealing with It
The identity of a person is compromised by others for their own benefit. It includes getting your social security number, date of birth, driver's licence, and your home address as well as your phone number. These are then used by the scamsters to comit crimes on your name. They might open a separate credit record with your identity. They might purchase credit cards on your behalf.
This is an increasing crime in US and the proportions are alarming.
How do identity thieves come to know about your identity details?
There are various ways in which identity thieves steal your identity. Some of these include, stealing your mail, stealing your wallet containing the driver’s license, state id and credit cards. Rummaging your thrash is another common method adopted by these scamsters for stealing your identity.
By checking your credit reports, you can keep a track of things. Make sure account being reported does belong to you and there are no credit enquiries you are not familiar with. You must under no circumstance share your password or personal identity wherever not necessary. Keep a handy list of all the credit card companies’ fraud report hot lines to protect your balances. If you notice any unacceptable withdrawal which you haven’t done, please ensure that you act fast and avoid any losses due to identity theft. Fraud alerts is a good idea to protect your credit card from future attacks since the scamster would no longer be able to open fraudulent accounts on your name.
It is a also a good idea to file a complaint of identity theft with FTC (Federal Trade Commission) You are entitled to a free copy of your credit score report in the event that you have a reason to believe that your file contains inaccurate information due to fraud or identity theft.
You are advised to pull out a copy of your credit report at least once every three months to keep track of withdrawals and debts on your account. This is one way of preventive measure against identity theft. By being active, you can help yourself and the credit bureaus to take a proactive step in making credit industry and consumers safer.
Any unprecedented e-mails wanting you to disclose your information and your passwords should be reported to the credit card companies and the bureaus. Identity theft should be prevented under all circumstances since identity theft is going to make people with a good credit score and good record look bad. There are a number of disputes pending in courts since the original holder of the card does not accept they had anything to do with buying costly consumer white goods. Shopping malls have been instructed to ask for identity proof in case of purchases above a certain limit to prevent identity theft.
There are initiatives being taken by the Government to prevent instances of identity theft and it is equally important for us to be vigilant.