Identity Number Theft prevention

Identity number theft is increasing at a higher rate after every coming day. These number thefts include the theft of credit card number, veteran number and social security number. The news of identity number theft is heard commonly on the television, newspaper and especially on web. The theft of this number brings along the damage of huge amount of money and credit.

The biggest tragedy of identity number theft is that anyone who owns a credit card or who possesses security number can be a victim of this theft unwillingly. No matter if you are an individual shopping for your family or a businessman doing some business financial transactions, you can be attacked by these frauds. These scams are out there waiting for you to do a single mistake.

With the advent of Internet shopping and online marketing, this theft has been increased more. On web people can pretend to be someone else so one needs to be extra vigilant while doing financial transactions online.

With this increasing risk, the question arises: what we must do to protect ourselves from these thieves? Awareness is the pre-requisite. Get yourself educated with all the procedures to save your security numbers from being stolen. There are some steps which might help you in this regard:

• You must be wise enough not to speak out your personal information in front of strangers. Remember these things are not to be told aloud. If you are that foolish to do this, you will have to suffer the worst consequences.
• Keep your check books safe in a lock at home or in office. Do not carry the whole check book with you in your wallet. You can keep one or two blank checks if it is so necessary. Stolen check books or check register can cause you much trouble in the end.
• If you are in a public place, be very tactful about the financial events happening in your life. These events include capital investments, big ticket purchase, stocks or property acquisition. Talking about financial events in public can lead to unwanted interest on your finances.
• You might be more than one credit card holder but you must not carry all of these with you. If you lost your wallet, you will loose all what you have. So keep only one credit card with you to minimize the risk.
• Social Security Number is your identity proof so try to memorize it. Never keep the Social Security Card with you as this is the easiest way for thief to take away your identity.
• Avoid using one credit card for high bills. This will drag attention to your finances. Use two cards if you have high bills.
• Try to use Automated Teller machines (ATM) as less as possible. When you use the ATM be sure that the person behind you does not see the transaction you are making. ATM is another hot place for identity number thieves.