Safeguard Against Identity Theft

Prevention is better than cure; If you have ever witnessed someone suffering through identity theft, you must believe on this quotation. The very first requirement to avoid this theft is awareness. Identity theft in broad sense covers many categories so everyone must be aware of all the categories and how one can fall in that to stay away from it.

Identity theft may occur online as well as in any utility stores. One may lose their identity if personal documents are stolen or were not disposed off properly.

When you talk about online identity theft, you must be aware of Phishing. It is a widely growing way to steal one’s identity online. In phishing criminals take help from spam or pop-up messages which appear on you screen while you are browsing web. These messages promise you any attractive offer but ask for your personal information including your credit card number or social security number.

In some cases, these spammers send you scam emails pretending to be from your bank or online payment services. They warn you to immediately update your credit information otherwise you will loose your account. These messages or emails ask you to follow a specified link to check the authenticity. This website might look like the original one but it actually is a fraud to trap you.

These online hackers trick you to put your personal information on their links and you will be passing over your secured data right in their hands. Always avoid such scams to keep yourself safe.

You can be victim of identity theft even if you do not use computer. There are million of other ways from where your personal information might be leaked out. Like, you did not shred your important documents before throwing them in bin and someone stolen information from them or you lost your wallet with your credit card. You might have left your receipt at a restaurant with your account number on that.

Some companies keep data of their clients in huge databases and most of the time these databases are linked with internet as well. These online hackers may get access to these databases to leak out precious information of your clients. On internet, it is harder to check the person’s identity as he himself is not available. So if the credit card number is stolen; the thief can easily sell or purchase items from web with your money.

In crowd these thieves may engage in “shoulder surfing” where they will catch you sharing your personal information with your friend or putting your information in any machine. Your name, telephone number and address are the easiest things that these criminals can get.

Just remember if you ever become the unlucky victim of this crime, you should contact Federal Trade Commission and police station as soon as possible. They have trained investigation teams to help you catch the fraud and guide you in other matters.