What are Ways ID Theft Can Occur?
First what is Identity Theft?
Identity theft is a very bad event that causes a lot of harm to a consumer’s credit. Think of how you would feel to know that someone else has used your credit and has left all the responsibilities and problems for you. Once the fraudulently opened accounts start appearing on your credit report, it will lower your credit score for sure because the ID thief is not likely to behave well with your credit.
What are Ways ID Theft Can Occur?
ID thieves have so many ways to scam people - and it is an easy crime to get away with. It is important for consumers to know how thieves can get access to personal information, and use it.
- By stealing or hacking the database of a business.
- By stealing your wallet.
- By stealing your snail mail or email containing your personal information, or submit a change of address form and bypass your mails to their door. (shred your junk mail and other correspondence)
- They can get your personal information from trash.
- They can steal your information through fake mails, phone calls and from duplicate sites purposefully build to scam people.
- They can pull your credit report by camouflaging as employer, creditor or land-lord.
So what happens when ID Theft occurs?
Using your personal information, crooks can ruin your credit in a very short time. They can –
- Open credit card account in your name.
- Take out bank loan to buy a car.
- Open a bank account with your information and write a number of bad checks.
- They may apply for a phone service in your name, obviously the bill will be charged to you.
- They can quickly do all of the above!
How can I avoid the scam?
There are some things that you can do to help you avoid identity theft. Here are a few:
- Do not carry extra credit cards with you that you do not need.
- Never disclose your SSN to a person who you do not know or send it out over an unsecured media.
- Keep a watch on your credit report regularly and make it a habit.
- Periodically check your bank statement.
- Close the credit cards that you are not interested to use any more.
- Do not have your SSN printed on your check leafs.
- You can stop pre-screened credit offers or ask credit reporting agencies to block your date of birth and SSN on your credit report.
- Do not respond to any email that states unrealistic message for you, like your bank account has been closed or craps like that. If necessary, type the website address of the concerned institution by your own, do not follow the link embedded in the emails.
- You can subscribe to an identity theft prevention service, such as LifeLock, that will take care of all of this for you.
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