Identity theft happens when a person uses your personal information to steal from you or to commit a crime. They may use your name, Social Security Number, and credit card information to make unauthorized purchases, avail of medical treatments, open new credit lines, or apply for loans.
Identity theft can also happen when someone steak your mail, such as your bank statement, credit card bill, or insurance receipts, to get access to your personal information. You can even get arrested when a thief uses your personal information.
When a person illegally uses your name to commit crimes and break the law, you can face serious consequences. Depending on the severity of the crime and the ways they used your information, you could end up with a criminal record, fines, and even jail time.
If someone uses your social insurance number to file a fake tax return, you can get penalties for the fraudulent return or face jail time. If someone uses your credit card information to make unauthorized purchases, you could be on the hook for the charges and may potentially damage your credit score.
No one guarantees that you will never become a victim of identity theft. With our personal information becoming more and more accessible, it is now crucial than ever to be vigilant about protecting our personal information.
To protect yourself from identity theft, here are some ways to safeguard your personal information:
Keep your personal information secure
As identity theft can only happen when a thief has gained access to your personal information, you must protect ensure that all your sensitive, personal information is secure. You may follow these measures to keep your information secure:
- Do not share your personal information with anyone you do not know and trust, unless it is for legal transactions and you have exercised due diligence.
- Keep your passwords and Personal Identification Numbers confidential. You must also regularly update them. Scammers are experts at figuring out weak passwords, using publicly available information. Thus, avoid using any of your easily available information as passwords, such as your date of birth, your mother’s maiden name, or the last four digits of your Social Security Number. Create a unique password that only you will be able to figure out — use long passwords with random strings of letters numbers, and symbols.
- Shred or tear up all sensitive documents, including credit card statements, insurance forms, medical papers, receipts, financial statements, before throwing them away.
- Lock your documents away. Do not leave any documents containing your data just lying around, even at your desk in the office.
- Never let your debit and credit cards be out of sight. You should also not leave any debit and credit card transaction receipts behind.
- Do not give out your personal information over the phone or email unless you are the one who initiated the transaction and trust the person you are dealing with. Moreover, do not engage in questionable promotional offers and be defensive when people ask for your personal information when unnecessary.
- When going out, minimize the amount of information you carry with you.
- Use a secure mailbox and pick up your mail straight away.
- Protect your personal information online, particularly when using social media.
Monitor and review your credit reports
By checking your credit scores regularly, you ensure that no fraudulent activities have taken place without your knowledge. Look to check if there are any transactions on your account that you are not aware of. If you suspect any illegal or unauthorized activities on your credit reports, you can immediately report them to credit bureaus to initiate a fraud alert.
According to law, you can request three credit reports per year from Experian, Transunion, and Equifax — the three major credit bureaus in the United States. In addition, you may enroll with a credit monitoring service to go the extra mile of protecting yourself from identity theft. There are even credit monitoring platforms that integrate with data from the three major credit bureaus.
Go paperless
Opting for paperless transactions reduces the possibility of an individual stealing your sensitive information. Thus, you must choose to transact electronically when possible. Instead of using physical documents that frauds can easily steal, you can use electronic documents. Also, there are many secure and trusted digital applications you can use to assist you in transacting online. For instance, if you need to sign documents, request that you electronically sign them. E-signature applications reduce the risk of identity theft as they use advanced security technologies, including encryption, to protect sensitive information and restrict access to documents.
Secure your devices
Your devices, particularly your phone, hold so much information personal about you. You must apply all the necessary measures to protect them. You may follow these measures to secure your mobile devices:
- Set your devices to auto-lock after a few seconds of them being idle.
- Public WiFi can be a convenient and cheap way to access the internet; however, many hackers can use public networks to gather your data. When browsing using public WiFi, you should use a secure VPN — A Virtual Private Network helps you stay private online by establishing a protected network connection. It is especially useful when using public networks.
- Install reputable antivirus software to your devices to detect any unauthorized access to them.
- Use biometric authentication on your devices instead of a PIN for additional security.
- Be wary of unsecure websites. Before entering any of your personal information into a website, make sure that it is safe to access and secure. Only use websites with URLs that start with ‘HTTPS’ instead of just ‘HTTP’.
Although it is impossible to completely prevent identity theft from happening, by following these tips, you can minimize the risk. Thieves will have difficulty accessing your personal information to use for their benefits or to commit crimes. As identity theft can happen to anyone, you must always be proactive in safeguarding your personal information. Moreover, by being vigilant you can also help protect the people who surround you.