The Dangers of Identity Theft and How to Protect Yourself
Identity theft is becoming more and more of an issue. Protecting your personal information from being accessed, stolen, and misused is as important as ever. The consequences of having your identity stolen can be harmful to your future, affecting your credit score, financial stability, and general peace of mind.
What is identity theft?
Simply put, identity theft is stealing another person’s personal information and using it for fraudulent purposes. This can happen in many ways, like phishing attacks, data breaches, mail theft, account hacking, and card skimming devices at ATMs and gas pumps. Once criminals have someone’s personal information, they can use it to open new lines of credit, make fraudulent purchases, and even use the victim’s information to take out loans.
These are some of the most common types of identity theft:
- Credit card fraud
- Bank account fraud
- Tax identity theft
- Social Security fraud
- Medical benefit fraud
How can you protect yourself from identity theft?
To protect yourself, you must be proactive. The most important thing you can do is safeguard your personal information. Don’t share sensitive information like your Social Security number, date of birth, or any account passwords. Create unique, strong passwords for your online accounts to secure them from forced password theft attempts.
Wherever possible, use Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) to protect your accounts. Using a second factor for login such as a code sent via text message, a code from an MFA application, or biometric (fingerprint or face recognition) helps verify that you are the owner of the account.
Another important thing you can do is regularly keep an eye on your credit reports. This will help you identify anything fraudulent before it snowballs and gets out of hand. You can also keep your credit frozen if you don’t have plans to open any new lines of credit soon. That will make it even more difficult for identity thieves to open fraudulent lines of credit in your name.
What should someone do if they suspect they’ve become a victim of identity theft?
If you think you may have been victimized, you must act quickly. The first thing to do is place a fraud alert on your credit report. You can place this alert with any of the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion, and they will alert potential creditors, making it more difficult for any identity thief to open new credit accounts with your information.
Next, you may want to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This is another level of protection against new accounts being opened fraudulently.
Lastly, you will need to reach out to the affected individual credit institutions to report the fraudulent activity. Each bank or credit agency has its own fraud processes and will guide you through reporting fraudulent purchases and closing and opening new accounts if needed.
By knowing what to look for, and understanding the different ways identity thieves can attack, you can better protect your financial accounts and significantly reduce your risk of becoming a victim.
At Guardian Savings Bank, we want to help you protect your money. Visit our Online Security Resource Center for important credit bureau contact information and to learn how our MoneyIQ resource can help give you the confidence to manage your money and prevent theft.