What Everyone SHoudl Know About Identity Theft
Identity theft is a very big problem, especially in the recent years. Many services that require personal information are now available online, and this makes personal information much easier to obtain. When our identity gets stolen, it can be a very scary time. You don’t know who has your information, or where that information is being used. Sometimes money gets taken that cannot be recovered my banks or other services, and for most people, that is a huge inconvenience.
Here are some things that you should do as quickly as possible, once you know your identity has been stolen. First, close your account. Have your credit card and any other card that the person who has stolen your account has access to. Second, file a complaint with the FTC. Third, file a complaint with the local police. Identity theft is a serious crime and should not be taken lightly. Fourthly, file a report with the local police. And fifthly, contact the fraud departments of any of the three consumer reporting companies to place a fraud alert on your credit report. If you do these things as soon as possible, there is a smaller chance that there could be significant harm to your bank account.
Because identity theft has become easier due to the electronic age, there are some staggering facts that might be surprising to some people. The general fear of getting your identity stolen has increases dramatically since the 1970s. In fact, 90% of individuals are concerned about threats to their privacy, which is an increase from the 34% in 1970. Also, in 1992, TransUnion received about 34,000 calls about identity theft from people who were victims or were concerned about a particular crime. The number has drastically increased since then. In 2001, TransUnion received over a million calls related to identity theft. While some people have become paranoid about identity theft since the terrorist attacks in 2001, there is indeed a reason to be somewhat cautious. In 2001, it was estimated that between 700,000 and 1.1 million people were victims of identity theft. Even back in 1997, the Secret Service estimates that consumers lost more than $745 million due to identity theft. While this number is high, the amount of money lost due to identity theft in 2001 is astounding. In 2001, a Florida Grand Jury estimated that the average identity theft crime costs the business community about $17,000 per victim. If you use this number and multiple it by the averaged 700,000 million victims a year, that means a loss of over 1.19 billion dollars a year! While money lost is a large issue when it comes to identity theft, time is also a concern. In fact, the average victim of identity theft spends over 175 hours and $1,000 of their own money to clear their name. This is a large about of time and money for most people, and is also a huge inconvenience.
Some things you can do to prevent identity theft are listed as followed: 1) Buy a cross shredder and shred all important documents such as pre-approved credit applications and other financial information 2) When using ATMs, make sure no one is standing over your shoulder. It is very easy to get someone’s pin number buy looking at them punch the numbers in 3) Get your checks delivered to your bank, not your home address 4) Cancel all credit cards that you are not using anymore 4) Make sure to have passwords for all your accounts, and do not make the passwords extremely easy to guess 5) Memorize social security numbers and passwords so that you do not have to have they lying around 6) Never give personal information over the phone, especially people you do not know 7) Do not but your social security number or telephone number on your checks 8) Get credit cards and other important documents with you picture on them so people cannot forge your signature 9) do not put your credit card information online unless you know for certain that the site is secure 10) Check your bank statement every month to make sure everything looks right.
Although the cases of identity theft have skyrocketed over the past several decades, if a person is cautious and aware of their money, the problem of identity theft should be rare and hopefully easy to take care of. However, when your identity has been stolen, it is extremely important to take the right precautions so that only the smallest amount of your money and time get taken.
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