If you think that identity theft can never happen to you, think again. Just take a look at statistics concerning identity theft, and you can see that the crime of identity theft is closer to you than you may realize.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), identity theft affects as many as 10 million Americans each year. Nearly 5% of the people living in the US will become an identity theft victim and the numbers are increasing each year. The FTC even reported that they currently received nearly 40% more identity theft complaints than the previous year. What is more alarming is that identity theft costs businesses and financial institutions nearly $53 billion annually.

The most common types of identity theft are credit card frauds, communications service fraud, bank fraud and loan fraud. Credit card fraud is when someone else uses your credit or uses your personal data to apply for a credit card. Meanwhile, communications service fraud deals with someone opening a cell phone or utility services account using your information without your knowledge. For bank fraud, a common scam is the thief opens up a checking account using your identity and then proceeds to write bogus checks.

For years, identity thieves get valuable personal information through stealing mail, snatching purses, or searching garbage for discarded bank statements or credit card receipts. With rapid technological advancement, most identity thieves now employ phishing. Statistics reveal phishing to be the most dangerous of all identity thefts as it uses both social engineering and technical subterfuge.

Phishing is when the victim receives an email that appears to be from a bank or other financial institution. The victim is then told to click a link and verify his/her account information or supply personal identity data. The victim believes the link to be a legitimate site when in fact the identity thief now uses the victim’s data to gain access to account information and empty the bank account. Phishers can also take out credit cards in the victim’s name, and steal ISP account information.

According to the latest findings of the research group Gartner, close to 60 million Americans reported receiving a phishing email, and about 1.7 million people have been victims, costing banks and credit card companies approximately $1.2 billion in losses.

All these figures and information about identity theft are definitely alarming. To avoid being the next identity theft statistic, it’s better to take measures to protect yourself against identity theft like keeping your personal information private, subscribing to an identity theft service, and many more. These are just simple steps that take only a few moments of your time. These few moments are indeed worth the while considering you can either spend countless hours trying to manage the damage done by identity theft.



By: Bernard Pragides

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People who become victims of identity theft often have to bear a lot of problems that results from the theft; therefore it is better to avoid theft altogether when possible. And luckily there are several identity theft solutions for families that are very useful for the prevention of these identity thefts among the family members.

Identity theft solutions for families start with the family members themselves. Points to consider include:

1) Many identity theft solutions are very simple things to follow like avoiding giving out personal information about any member in the family to any outside person. The children may disclose information, therefore, the useful information like passwords of accounts, and other things should be kept away from them.

2) Another way in which identity theft can occur is due to the loss of any official papers containing private information; hence it is advisable that all such papers should be properly preserved in a safe manner and copies and unneeded documents destroyed with a shredder. The passwords of the accounts should never be written down on paper. All this information should remain only in the mind of the owner or in a safe place.

3) The theft may also occur if a person leaves or moves from his house and still has his mail sent to that address. Therefore, identity theft solutions for families also include the proper provision of the information about the changes in the address.

4) Identity theft solutions for families also include joining only standard organizations and commercial companies. This is because in order to join any organization, it is often required of members that some personal information about the person or his family be shared. In addition to this, everybody in the family should be aware not to provide information to any person who is not officially from that company.

5) In addition to the above-mentioned offline identity theft solutions for families, there is also need of precautions for online identity theft for families. The occurrences of online identity theft are more frequent today than those happening offline. Thieves do it with the help of the virus spyware and other hacking software. Online, they enter the PC system and then they can take away the information that is stored on the PC. Therefore, identity theft solutions for families includes the use of spy ware protecting software.

6) Identity thefts also occur due the use of the internet. Many members of the families have email accounts, online bank and other types of accounts. The information related to these accounts and other additional information provided to these accounts may leak through them. Therefore, identity theft solutions for families includes all the measures to prevent this from happening.

In short, online and off, all family members should not provide unnecessary information for their accounts, and they should carefully choose their passwords. This will enable scammers from hacking your accounts. In fact, a weak password is among the major causes of all the hacking of online accounts and information.

Many times some unnecessary pop ups or some links appear on the screen. Clicking on them should be avoided at all times.



By: Bernard Pragides

About the Author:

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America today. More than 9.9 million Americans were the victim of many types of identity theft scams in 2004, which ended up costing them almost $5 billion. Most identity theft victims suffered sever financial damage and even financial ruin because they thought identity theft would not happen to them. No matter what your current financial state is like, where you live, or what your spending habits are, you are a target for identity theft. The truth is that everyone is at risk for identity theft, but fortunately there are things you can do to prevent identity theft from happening to you.

It may seem simple, but shredding all documents you receive that contain any of your personal information is one of the best ways to prevent identity theft. This includes credit card receipts, bills, and pre-approved credit applications. This important step alone can give you great protection against identity as the majority of identity theft originates from financial documents that were thrown away or intercepted.

You should also remember never to give your personal information to anyone over the phone, through the mail, or on the Internet. Identity thieves will often claim to be from various sources including your bank, the government, or even law enforcement to get you to divulge your personal info. You should always keep your personal information private in order to prevent identity theft. If you are contacted by a legitimate institution, make sure you check the validity of their claim and do not give information on the first contact. Call or contact the company directly to make sure it was really them who contacted you.

It is also important to check your credit report from all three major credit bureaus once a year to make sure everything is accurate and there is no suspicious activity. If you find an error or something suspicious dispute it immediately to protect your credit and prevent identity theft. Always be aware of when your bills should arrive every month and always check them over carefully to make sure there are no unknown charges. Identity thieves will steal your credit card statements and other bills and then use the information for their own gain. This type of identity theft has been around for years and is the oldest type of identity theft.

Another way to safeguard your identity is not to use common numbers as ATM passwords. Your birthday, address numbers, and part of your social security number are all easily accessible to thieves who steal your wallet and ATM card and will allow them easy access to your cash. You should also never carry your social security number in your wallet in case it is stolen. Your social security number should be safeguarded at all costs and you should also be very discriminating in who you give it to. Generally the only people you need to give it to are your employer, doctor, and financial institution. If another company asks for it, find out why they need it and decline to give it to them if they do not need it for tax reporting purposes.



By: Manny Vetti

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