Don’t Fall a Victim to Identity Theft
What if you wake up one morning to find that someone has intruded into your e-mail account and sent phishing mails to all your contacts? Or, you get a phone call from your banker that the whole money in your account is wiped out? Or worse, what if somebody steals your social security number and opens many financial accounts and grabs heavy loans under your name?
These are all the types of identity theft. It is a criminal activity when someone steals your personal information, such as credit card number, bank ID and password, Social Security Number, to commit fraud or other crime at your expense. Many a times, months or years pass before people realize that they have fallen victims to identity theft.
It’s simply your routine habits that make you more vulnerable to identity theft. If you shop online, use mobile banking, social networking sites, hand off your credit card at a hotel or discard sensitive documents carelessly, the thieves have enough opportunities to grab your personal information and damage your whole life or put you in trouble. Weird it may sound, but this is how we consumers are suffering.
You can avoid the risk of identity theft if you are well aware of the common and advanced ways the thieves use to commit the felony .
Workplace Scams
Many people generally overlook this issue. A dishonest co-worker of yours can easily slip your records from the company database. Sometimes the thieves bribe a company employee who has direct access to employees records.
The modern day criminals use social engineering tools to gain entry into a company’s internal network. Social engineering is when a criminal tricks you to give them your password. A common example is someone calls you to convince that they are from technical support and they need password to correct a network problem. They may give you false assurance that your password is in safe hands.
Solution
Never ever give your password to anybody, not even your friends, especially over the telephone. Many of us feel proud and glad giving password to a stranger because we think we are helping the organization or a co-worker.
Stealing the Wallet and Mails
A quite old-fashioned method used by criminals is to steal your wallet. It may contain important documents like the Social Security Card, insurance card or driver’s license.
Sometimes they steal mails directly from your mailbox to acquire your personal information. You shouldn’t dump your sensitive documents without shredding, because you think those documents are useless, others don’t.
Solution
You are recommended not to carry Social Security Card in your wallet. Shred all the papers containing your personal and financial information before throwing them in the garbage. To make things more secure, consider keeping track of your credit report because any financial transaction from your accounts will reflect in credit score.
Your Dear Ones
It’s sad but true that even your family members, relatives, friends, household workers or spouse willing to divorce can perpetrate identity theft if they have a grudge. They can obtain your social security number, driver’s license number or any other personal document because they have direct access into your life.
Solution
Since these people are too close to ignore, simply keep your documents away from anybody you doubt or someone who has conflict with you.
Shoulder Surfing
Beware the next time you go to ATM and find someone standing a little closer than they should be. They can be looking at the sensitive information. Worse, sometimes they stealthily take an image of your debit/credit card or record a video in their mobile when you are entering the ATM pin number. If you must use an ATM where there is a long queue behind you, just block others’ view with your body.
Hacking
The advanced technology has made criminals lazy and you more worried. Now they can steal your information without ever leaving their comfort zone. There are several ways your personal information can be hacked or stolen using Internet.
- There are websites that sell your personal information including Social Security Number for as little as $20. Therefore do not give your personal information over Internet until absolutely necessary.
- Hackers can access into the database of a merchant website to obtain your information. So, it’s wise to deal only with the reputed websites and not give your credit card number to purchase something from just any sales page.
- Sometimes the hackers put a ‘mirror’ website, which appears exactly similar to a merchant website. They gain your credit card number along with the password when you try to log in or place an order. To avoid such incidences, always enter the original website by typing the web address manually.
- If your computer system doesn’t have a firewall, you are more vulnerable to hacking. Get a firewall.
Spyware
Corporations spend hundreds of thousands of dollar to identify and understand the spending habits of the consumers as a part of market research. These companies generally install spyware software in your system in exchange for a free software tool. It gives them easy access to all that you surf or purchase, including the personal information.
Once installed, the spywares automatically change the internet setting on your computer by bringing in their own drivers.
First, don’t ever install any program that comes with a spyware. And if you have already installed, run a spyware removal program several times to remove it from the computer.
Telephone Scams
You pick up a phone and someone surprises you by announcing that you have won a big fat prize. You simply need to make a small payment as shipping fee through your credit card. Do not ever give your financial information to any such person. If you are really a winner, you never have to pay anything to get your prize.
Get your phone number registered to the ‘National Do Not Call Registry‘ (1-888-382-1222).
Phishing
Our favorite official as well as unofficial mode of communication is e-mail. You may get a fake e-mail that looks exactly similar to a real merchant website’s (say PayPal) e-mail. It contains a direct link to the website that is also fake, but looks like the real one. The e-mail will persuade you to log in and take some action. If you click on the link to log in, the criminal will obtain you ID and password for the real merchant.
Make sure that you never click on any link mentioned in an e-mail, especially when it asks for your personal information. Always enter the web address manually to visit that website.
Synthetic Identity Theft
It’s an advanced technique that has gained immense popularity among thieves in the past few years. We know that the first three digits of Social Security Number refers to the birthplace of a person, next two digits are assigned based on the time of birth, and the last four digits can be guessed using advanced statistical techniques.
Problem arises when the SSN decoded by thieves happen to be yours. They can then match up a new but fake name with your SSN to create a new ID. He can then borrow as much money as possible under your SSN with a different name.
The credit rating agencies give creditors your main file with the original name, so it doesn’t display any alternate name associated with your SSN. But the debt collectors generally search a person using Social Security Number, regardless of the name. That’s when you will be in trouble. There could be a heavy debt connected with your SSN, though not with your name. But the debt collectors are likely to force you to pay the debt under your SSN, which you are not responsible for.
You have to be vigilant that your SSN isn’t connected with any other name, so check your credit score exclusively using your SSN.
Trojans
Trojans are the malicious programs that can make a deceptive way into your computer system. Once installed, they open a back door for hackers and all your files and personal information stored in the computer are now at the mercy of hackers.
They can also track whatever you are typing on the keyboard to obtain your password and account numbers. You should use specifically designed tools to protect you from Trojans.
Skimming
How confidently and willingly we hand over our credit/debit cards at restaurants or other shopping places without having any idea of that employee’s character. The ill-minded employees can either memorize the card number or take a photo of the card. We then sign the credit card receipt without giving a second thought that we have already given them our signature and credit card number.
Always try to hand over the credit card directly in the hands of cashier to make payments. Another way is to keep a disposable credit card having a limited spending amount. It is useful only till you reach the limit. Once the limit is over, it’s useless. This method prevents the thieves from gaining access to your credit or back accounts.
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