Staying Out of Trouble Part 2

Identity theft and staying out of trouble, Part 2

The topic of theft of identity continues to be a hot one, as more and more media reports of security breaches at mortgage companies turn up in the morning paper. Identity theft occurs when someone you do not know makes use of your personal identification, such as a Social Security number, to act as you so that they might obtain a credit card loan or a mortgage. Criminals spend your money as they like, keenly aware that the bills will eventually become yours. Your credit report is wrecked, the lenders want you to pay back bills you may not even know about, and it might take years to clear up the mess to the agreement of all parties. It often takes a year or longer to discover this problem, and in the meantime, the thief might run up tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt in your name.

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identity theft victim

There are many things that can be carried out to help preclude this problem, and we have discussed many of them elsewhere. Noted below are a few additional things that you can do to prevent becoming an identity theft victim:

  • Do not carry your Social Security card or any seldom-used credit cards in your wallet. The only result that can come from carrying rarely used identification is a bad one. ID cards that you seldom need should stay at home.
  • You do not need to print your phone number, Social Security number or driver's license number. When buying checks, have as little personal information as possible printed on them. If you write a check at a department store and they legitimately request personal information, you can provide it. Should this not happen, no one else needs it. Leave personal information off of the checks. Buy a paper shredder and shred all unnecessary paperwork. Thieves can sort through your garbage cans, and all they have to do to get a credit card is sign your name. Destroy unwanted mortgage offers, in addition to any other documents you no longer need. Shred any and all of those credit card advertisements you get in the mailbox and don't want.
  • Be careful when doing business on the telephone. Your credit card company will not call asking for personal information; they already have it. Do not provide your Social Security number, credit card number, or any other personal information to anyone who calls you on the telephone. If you are in doubt as to whom you are speaking, quickly hang up and call the bank or whomever they say they are yourself.
  • Be careful when doing business online.Computer hackers can use "brute force" attacks that use every word in the dictionary and passwords like that are quickly broken. Numbers that resemble letters are good, use a zero rather than the letter "O", for instance. Avoid the common trick of using names of pets, children or sports teams for your password. Avoid using simple passwords when banking or conducting any financial business online. Effective safe passwords for Internet transactions include a mixture of upper and lower case characters or a mixture of letters and other characters. Passwords of greater than 8 characters are quite effective at deterring identity thieves.

Be careful, and be cautious. These are the keys to avoiding financial crimes.
 

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