Identity Theft: Protecting Yourself with Payday loans and other things

The Defensive Side of Identity Theft. Part I

Identity theft is the nations fastest growing crime with 10 million Americans each year being affected. Identity theft has become a global pandemic accounting for the loss of over $221 billion dollars – more than payday loans can cover, for sure.

Multiple methods are used by these skilled identity thieves to still your personal information. By familiarizing yourself with these methods you will better learn to protect yourself and your identity.

Shoulder Surfing:

Keep your financial affairs private. Many thieves practice what is called shoulder Surfing. Shoulder surfing is basically the process of someone looking over your shoulder as you enter your private pin numbers or ease dropping on phone calls where a purchase order is taking place. Be aware of your surroundings and take the appropriate precautions when purchasing online, on the phone, or at the marketplace.

Dumpster Diving:

If you have yet to a get a paper shredder, you should consider doing so. Dumpster diving is practiced by many thieves and is one of the easiest methods for obtaining personal information. It involves going through your trash looking for any credit card, bank, or utility statements that may help them put the necessary pieces together to take possession of your financial accounts.  Some of these hoods have taken out payday loans with victims information.

Your financial documents should always be shredded using a cross cut shredder. A cross cut shredder is recommend because the most persistent and computer savvy identity thief’s have image recognition software that helps them reconstruct and piece together shredded documents that they have confiscated from your trash can.

Stealing

Many of us don’t realize how vulnerable we are. The quickest way for identity thieves to obtain your personal information is to steal it. Be careful as to who you let into your residence and if you commonly have group meetings or events in your home such game nights, super bowl or holiday parties, make sure that you don’t leave any personal financial statements laying around. Lock this information into a personal cabinet or office if you have one.

It should also be mentioned here that 43% of victims believe they know the person who stole their identity. It is imperative that you keep your information as private as possible.

Bribery

One area that we don’t have much control over as consumers is bribery. It’s is an unfortunate but true fact that many identities are stolen by bribing government, bank or credit card company employees who have access to your personal information.

Pretexting

Thieves often times will obtain the information they need straight from you, using false pretenses. For example they may pretend to be your credit card company or a bank employee. If finding a purchase order in your garbage they may call you and verify your recent order as well as ask you to verify the credit card information used for the order. The thief is able to achieve possession of this information quite easily as the they already possess information that gives them credibility and trust with the consumer.

When ever someone calls asking for your credit card information this should be a red flag. If the caller is really a representative for one of your creditors they usually ask you to only confirm the last four digits of your credit card number not the entire card number. If it seems the least bit suspicious hang up and call the company they are claiming to be a part of back (not with the number they give you but off the card its self). You can then resolve any verifications or discrepancies that are present on your account.

Skimming

Careful where you use your credit and or debit cards. Skimming is becoming a popular and is the process of using a special storage device to scan and remember your card information. Recently “Red Box”, the portable movie vending machines had a problem with this. Since many of these machines are out side it was easy for the criminals to hook up their device which is usually installed in parallel with the card slot. After a period of time the thief comes back to retrieve the device which will then contain all the card number of each individual which used the vending machine.

Phishing

Criminals may also try to divert your mail to a different location by putting in a change of mailing address on you. Thankfully more criteria is now be required by the US postal service as well as most creditors to limit this form of abuse.

A little effort saves you a lot of time:

The average number of hours victims spend repairing the damage caused by identity theft is 330 hours. With the many ways thieves are discovering they can use to still your identity, you can never be to careful when it comes to your personal information. A little caution here will save you time, money, and heart ache later, and from having to get payday loans to cover the damage.

Are You A Victim?

Learn what to do next if you become a victim of identity theft in the article “Fallen Victim to Identity Theft? | What Now?“