Fast Growing Crime - ID Theft

Name, Rank, and Social Security Number Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the U.S.

The U.S. Secret Service has estimated that consumers nationwide lose $745 million to identity theft each year. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the average victim spends 607 hours and averages $1,000 just to clear their credit records.

Theives who steal Identiies use a number of different methods to retrieve your personal information without you knowing. They may be able to gain your information from businesses or other institutions by stealing it. They may bribe an employee who has access to records. They may get information by hacking into records. Maybe they will end up just plain conning the information out of employees. Once identity thieves have your personal information, they may easily use it to commit an act of fraud or theft using your name.

How can you tell if you have become a victim of identity theft?

Some signs include unexplained charges or withdrawals from your financial accounts

Bills or other mail stop arriving because the thief might have submitted a change of address

Perhaps a credit application is denied you for no apparent reason

Debt collectors may begin calling you about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.

Your computer can be a goldmine to anyone who is in the practice of stealing identities. Your computer contains a wealth of personal information for an identity thief to play with.

To protect yourself and your computer against identity theft consider:

Updating virus protection software frequently.

Consider setting your virus protection software to update automatically.

The Windows XP operating system also can be set to check for patches automatically.

Windows XP will also download the patches to your computer automatically.

Do not opening files sent to you by strangers

Do not click on hyperlinks

Do not download programs from people or companies you don’t know.

Use a firewall program, particularly if you are on high speed Internet connections

High Speed cable or DSL leaves your computer attached to the internet 24h a day.

Make sure you firewall against intruders if your machine will be conneted 24h/day

Only provide personal or financial information through secured websites.

While not fool proof, a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins "https:" (the "s" stands for secure), may provide additional security.

Stop storing financial information on your laptop, unless this is absolutely necessary.

Delete all the personal information stored on a computer before disposing of it.

Use a "wipe" utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive.

Check with an anti-fraud education organization such as CardCops (www.cardcops.com).

Card Cops runs a web site designed to help consumers determine whether their credit card numbers may have been stolen or not. They monitor Internet "chat rooms" where identity thieves gather. Here, the thieves illicitly trade and sell stolen credit card numbers. CardCops turns pertinent information over to law enforcement authorities. The authorities will also allow consumers to access a database to see whether individual card numbers may have been stolen.
In the first two months of operation, the site identified more than 100,000 stolen credit cards.

As with any crime, you can not completely control whether you will become a victim, but you can take steps to minimize your risk by remaining diligent and by minimizing outside access to your personal information.