Identity theft remains a serious issue in the United States. How serious? According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 166 million records were exposed so far to identity theft in 2022, arising from over 1,291 total data breaches.
The data breach analysis reports 474 compromises for Q3 2022. The financial services sector accounted for 15 percent of data breaches, healthcare and hospitality were 21.4 percent, the government had 4 percent and education with 5 percent.
The meaning? You have to be more careful than ever to prevent a criminal from stealing your identity and impacting your daily life and finances.
Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to lessen your odds of becoming a victim of this crime. Moreover, some of the steps require little more than common sense.
Reducing the Chance of Identity Theft
National credit bureau TransUnion, for example, recommends that you only carry essential personal documents with you. Leave extra credit cards, birth certificates, passports, and Social Security cards at home unless you need them. This way, if you get physically robbed, your assailant will not have as much personal information to use against you.
TransUnion also recommends that you be careful when throwing away documents. The credit bureau recommends shredding receipts, credit card offers, bank statements, and returned checks before tossing them in your garbage or recycling bin. Thieves are not above pawing through your garbage to uncover your personal information.
The Federal Trade Commission adds that you should refrain from receiving new personal checks from your bank through the mail. Instead, try picking them up at the bank so that identity thieves have one less opportunity to acquire your personal information.
One way to give identity thieves less personal information is to opt-out of prescreened credit, and insurance offers that come in the mail. For example, you can log onto OptOutPreScreen.com to prevent financial companies from sending credit cards or insurance offers to your mailbox. Through this site, recommended by the Federal Trade Commission, you can opt-out of receiving these offers for five years or permanently. Eliminating these offers from your mailbox means that information thieves will not be able to use them to acquire your personal information.
Avoiding Scams
Equifax, a national credit bureau, warns consumers to be careful when giving out information online or through the phone. As the credit bureau says, many scammers will try to pry personal data out of consumers by convincing them they are representatives of their banks, phone company or credit card providers.
The scam is simple, with identity thieves calling or emailing to say that consumers will lose access to a vital account if they do not confirm necessary information. Please do not fall for it. As Equifax states, your credit card company, utility, or bank will never ask you to provide passwords or your Social Security Number by phone or email. If you are unsure that you are speaking to a legitimate representative of your bank, utility, or credit card provider, ask them to send you a request by mail.
An excellent way to protect yourself is to regularly track your bank and credit card accounts. Study your bank statements for any questionable withdrawals or transactions. Look at your credit card bills when they arrive to ensure that there aren't any unauthorized purchases. Scammers rely on the fact that many victims fail to study financial statements when they come. Don't fall into this trap.
It would also help to track when your credit card statements regularly arrive. If your statement is late, contact your credit card provider. A thief may have stolen the information to take your data. Of course, signing up for paperless statements could solve this problem.
Securing Your Information
Today's identity thieves have become proficient at using a computer to steal consumers' personal information. Their computer savvy means that you have to be especially careful when online.
CNET says that protecting yourself online starts with creating strong passwords that are difficult for thieves to hack. To do this, make sure to create passwords that include text, numbers, and symbols. Also, make sure that your passwords are long. The longer and more complex your passwords, the more challenging they will crack hackers. Unfortunately, many will merely move on to more accessible victims.
Make sure, though, that you do not use the same password for all of your online sites. Once a hacker cracks one password, you can be sure that this criminal will not hesitate to try it out on many other financial websites you visit.
CNET also recommends that you refrain from clicking on the attachments in strange email messages, even if these messages appear to be coming from a friend or co-worker. You never know if your friend has been a hacking victim as well.