National Consumer Week is Feb 6-12 this year and in its honor I decided to write about the fastest growing white collar crime in the US. That’s right, Identity Theft. This is truly a consumer issue of high priority on the minds of consumers as well as regulators, legislators and crime units across the country. A survey commissioned by the Federal Trade Commission revealed that an estimated 27 million Americans have been victims of the crime in the last five years, nearly 10 million in the last year alone.
Most of us know that identity thieves can get our personal information by stealing our wallet or purse, stealing our mail or completing a ‘change of address form’ without our knowledge, rummaging through our trash at home or at a business, a practice known as “dumpster diving” and using personal information they find on the Internet about us.
But did you know that when disposing of a computer, it’s insufficient to delete files by using the keyboard or mouse commands. Rather, it’s best to use a "wipe" utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive; it makes the files unrecoverable.
Identity thieves get your personal information and use it to do a number of nasty things that can destroy your credit rating and more. They can call your credit card issuer and change the mailing address on the card, or open a new credit card account or bank account in your name. They might file for bankruptcy under your name to avoid paying off debts they’ve incurred or counterfeit checks or drain your bank account.
To minimize your risk of becoming a victim of ID theft, there are a number of steps you can take. Do not give out your personal information by email, Internet, phone or mail unless you initiated the contact and/or you are certain that you know who you’re dealing with. Be sure the Internet site is secure – look for the closed lock on the bottom of the tool bar. Do not carry your Social Security card with you. You’d be surprised how many of us do and forget it’s even there. Instead, write it down somewhere you know to look and leave the card at home. Carry only the identification information and the number of credit and debit cards that you'll actually need and place passwords on your credit card, bank and phone accounts when this service is available.
If you have a high speed connection to the Internet, such as DSL or a cable modem, you need a firewall program to help stop uninvited guests from accessing your computer. A high-speed connection leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. If you don’t have a firewall program, hackers can take over your computer and access personal information stored on it or use it to commit other crimes
If you are a victim of identity theft, it’s a good idea to place a fraud alert on your credit reports and review your credit reports periodically. The fraud alert on your credit report can help prevent an identity thief from opening additional accounts in your name.
If you think someone has stolen your personal information or identification, there are steps you should take to prevent the misuse of that information. Contact the police and report the theft or loss. Immediately close all your credit card or bank accounts by contacting the credit card/bank companies. Talk with the fraud departments to determine best strategies for you. Contact the Social Security Administration to alert them and possibly get a new Social Security number. Alert the issuing agencies of your driver’s license or other identification documents of the theft.
Sometimes it takes a while to find out you’re a victim of identity theft. Some clues include failure to receive bills or other mail, receiving credit cards for which you didn’t apply, being denied credit for no apparent reason, getting calls or letters from debt collectors or businesses about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.
A recent survey of Americans regarding ID theft showed that for fraud that included opening new account in your name, 34% of the victims knew the thief. This tells us we need to protect information that is in our homes, worksites and wallets carefully. One example is the often used habit of keeping our computer and website passwords on a piece of paper taped to your computer. The research findings suggest that we should take care to safeguard our passwords. Also, it’s a good idea to use a strong password - a combination of letters (upper and lower case), numbers and symbols.
We need to be sure information is not accessible to individuals such as babysitters, contractors and cleaning service personnel who come into our homes.
Keeping your identity safe takes a bit of prevention and a little time. So use your winter, inside time to clean your wallet, shred or burn personal information that you want to discard, organize your information and safeguard your passwords and information. With a little effort you’ll reduce your chances for identity theft.
—Maria Pippidis, Extension Educator,
Family & Consumer Science
Originally published in
“Newark Outlook,”
The Newark Post
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