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TIPS FOR PROTECTION AGAINST IDENTITY
THEFT
Did you know that nine million people
were victims of identity theft this
year? Would you like to be one of them?
If the answer is no then here are some
tips to avoid your self from being a
victim of the identity theft. Identity
theft is very rampant in the United
States and is a huge criminal offense.
Several people around the globe have
fallen victims to this criminal offense.
According to the Department of Justice
in the United States, drug trafficking
will soon be replaced with identity
theft if the trend continues.
The easiest way to steal someone’s
identity is to steal his or her wallet
or purse which will, in most cases,
contain many documents revealing his or
her identity. Therefore, do not carry
more than required information to prove
your identity. If you are a responsible
citizen then you should have, at most, 2
credit cards on you. Never ever get your
SSN card with you by keeping it in the
purse or the wallet.
Second method of leaking your identity
to others is through government records,
statements of credit card and bills.
Therefore, all such documents should be
very carefully disposed off so that it
would not fall in to the wrong hands and
be misused. Do not make the simple
mistake of throwing away whole documents
in to the bin. If you tear it in to just
one or two pieces then also the purpose
is not served as the document can be
easily recovered by putting together the
pieces.
Third, your information – personal and
banking related will be hacked unless
you have saved it with secure passwords.
It is the digital world where all
information is stored in 0’s and 1’s.
Hence, if you don’t protect your data
with sufficient passwords then, it will
be hacked and stolen. One tip related to
passwords is – do not use a password
that is easy to remember but use system
generated passwords which contains a
good combination of special characters,
numbers and letters.
One of the most important tips is that,
you should never give your credit card
data to anybody through email or through
phone. See that every transaction on
your credit card is initiated by your
self.
In the same way, giving the information
related to your credit cards to someone
you don’t trust is one of the biggest
blunder you would have made.
Lastly, you should avail of the “Fraud
Prevention Monitoring Service”. This is
one of the most effective ways to
prevent identity theft against you. If
you do not opt for this service then
don’t be surprised when an unwanted
collector demands money from you which
you do not owe.
If you get suspicious that your identity
has been stolen or hacked from your
compute then report it to the police as
soon as possible. Any delay will only
cause more harm to you.
Identity theft has more than thirty
million victims in the last five
years!!! So beware.
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