Prevent identity theft for financial safety
Discover how to prevent identity theft, what the bad guys do, and proven techniques you can use to reduce risk and m oney losses.
Prevent identity theft is on the minds of nearly 10 million Americans since 2000 who've discovered the trail of criminals through personal banking and checking accounts. Identity theft takes many forms but in all cases reflects exploitation of America 's open society and free enterprise market model. On one hand exist large pools of law abiding Americans, secure in their lifestyle but generally oblivious to the threat of identity theft. Opposing them are skilled criminals, knowledgeable in information technology procedures, competent in the organizational assumptions controlling public record data bases, and acutely aware of the "system" limitation to prevent identity theft.
Identity theft statistics show troubling trends. Despite efforts to identify and prevent identity theft, the incidence rate of identity theft has increased 80% in 2003 over the previous tracking period. Meanwhile, identity theft perpetrators follow the inadequate and flailing efforts by "gum shoes" law enforcement personnel to track down and successfully prosecute a mere one in seven hundred identity theft cases. At the moment, identity theft villains seemingly have the upper hand.
Prevent identity theft is important to American seniors, especially where social security benefits may be fraudulently mis-directed to criminals rather than to the proper beneficiaries. In order to prevent identity theft related to social security, you should not provide your social security number on job applications (which can be un-secured information file areas) or print you social security number on checks, or permit a merchant to write your number on checks. Seniors can also prevent identity theft by not carrying social security number cards in your wallet unless required, or to carry insurance cards bearing social security details.
The bottom line strategy to prevent identity theft requires consumers to self-monitor all credit resource areas such as insurance, banking, brokerage, credit cards, ATM cards, phone cards, special membership or club cards bearing credit privileges. Some states such as Massachusetts , Colorado and Georgia amongst others assist residents to prevent identity theft by legislating the requirement that all state residents receive one free credit report annually. Meanwhile, privately operated credit monitoring firms will assist residents to prevent identity theft for a $50 -$120 annual fee.
Additional proactive strategies to prevent identity theft include passwords that are not based on any recognizable or traceable personal data point such as the last four digits of your social security number, your dog's name, your mother's maiden name, or any other family name that could be easily discovered by someone accessing your mail or other records. Going further into this strategy, you can further prevent identity theft by establishing PIN or personal identification numbers that do not rely on consecutive numbers, birthdays, or other easily corrupted source files.
In order to prevent identity theft with all of your banking or related financial accounts, you can insist that the financial institution add additional security clearances into the account, or block attempts at account takeovers and identity theft by encrypting all access codes.
Identity theft and the villains associated with this fraud are quickly becoming permanent features on the information highway and free enterprise market model so unique to the USA . In order to prevent identity theft, consumers have to become vigilant, monitoring all financial accounts, and learn to be wary in the providing of confidential personal data. Please continue to utilize this web site for identity theft information resources.
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