Protect Yourself From Identity Fraud
Learn how to protect against identity fraud and theft, as well as credit card theft prevention strategies.Avoiding Identity Fraud Pitfalls
Identify fraud and theft prevention has become a painful reality for nearly 10 million Americans since 2000. The related area of credit card fraud has risen by over 80% since 2002, giving further support to the argument for greater personal commitment to protection strategies.
* The Importance Of Your Banking And Credit Card Account Information. Identity fraud relies on unauthorized use of the identity theft victim banking and credit card accounts.
In other instances, such as in internet identity fraud, transactions related to the purchase of services or goods can be corrupted when personal identifying details such as date of birth, credit card account number, address, or social security number are used in order to verify identity.
* When Sloppiness 'Bites Back'. Identify fraud perpetrators rely on victim carelessness, such as with the college age population segment, which is unfamiliar with credit and financial account management, and is driven by "buy now, think later" lifestyle strategies.
You can quickly see the ease by which identity fraud can be carried out on a naïve victim, such as typical college age students. Students are unsuspecting of identity fraud and theft, accordingly will think nothing of providing their social security number to a local book store or even pizza delivery guy in order to vouchsafe a sale.
In these cases identity fraud prevention requires nothing more than the words "no, I have cash, you don't need to know my social security number or drivers license details".
* Consumer Tip - Areas Critical For Monitoring. Identity fraud protection requires that you regularly monitor all banking and credit card accounts, in order to quickly spot fraud where unauthorized purchases may have been made against you, the identity theft victim.
The next response phase for identity theft protection is to immediately contact all credit accounts, including banking and merchant and credit card and mortgage accounts, in order to alert their security and compliance people of suspected identity fraud.
* Speed, Stealth And Surprise By Villains. The identity fraud criminal relies upon surprise attack, speedy getaway, and victim ignorance. To obtain key personal data necessary for carrying out identity fraud and theft, the criminal can relatively easily locate "soft" access points within the credit industry in order to enter into data bases where credit history and transaction data are stored.
Indeed, identity fraud and theft is aided and abetted by the credit industry itself, which regularly sells lists to direct marketing firms. Even in activist states such as California where robust privacy laws have been enacted, identity fraud and theft may have been facilitated by the State "selling" date of birth and names lists representing over 25 million Californians for fees to internet direct marketing firms.
With such sloppy controls over primary public record data bases, identity fraud villains can rapidly gain entry and then corrupt accounts of their identity theft victims.
Identity fraud and theft can be used by criminals to target even larger crimes such as insurance fraud, where policies and residual values might become fraudulently conveyed to criminals posing as the policy holder, due to the underlying success of the identity theft.
If you believe that you've become a victim of identity fraud and theft, then you should immediately close down all financial accounts, contact the police and securities authorities, and obtain an identity fraud report reflecting your current credit capabilities.
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