Or you get a few credit card
offers and other junk mail you don’t want so you rip it in half and throw it in
the trash. POW! Someone just took out 5 credit cards in your
name and maxed them.
Even scarier, you just go to
your local store and buy a pair of jeans.
SHAZAM! Just by that act, they
record sensitive financial information in their database – your name, address,
credit card numbers, and anything else they can gather, which is easy pickings
for hackers.
In fact, identity theft and
crimes of financial and data theft are more prevalent than ever in the United
States, where approximately 15 million people have their identities used
fraudulently each year. The bill on that
theft is upwards of $50 billion dollars every year. That’s three times more than the combined $14
billion in losses from all other types of consumer theft (burglary, motor
vehicle theft, property theft, etc.) combined.
It takes a lot of time and often money to clear up the mess identity thieves
leave behind. Their credit report and
score will be compromised, which can set off a domino effect of raising
interest rates and even insurance premiums.
Debt collectors start calling and sending mail, or even taking them to
court. Some people get lucky and they’re
able to clear their good name in a few weeks, but for others it becomes a
nightmare that lasts years.
Just last year, more than 16
million people saw their identities compromised or stolen, which equals an
astounding 7% of all adults in the U.S.A.
The financial toll to those people is high. On average, each identity theft victim
suffers direct losses of $9,650, up from just $3,500 a few years ago.
Of course we have to be
careful of where we log in, how we store and use our passwords and financial
information, and even how we discard our mail, but what’s truly frightening is
that we put ourselves at risk just by being consumers. Stores and businesses are in the practice of
data mining, or collecting every shred of information on their customers and
the public, used for marketing purposes and to anticipate and control buying
behaviors. And we’re not even talking
about governmental databases yet. But
these massive databases of your information are rich targets for hackers and
thieves from all over the world. About
100 million Americans have their personal information put at risk of identity
theft each year from government or corporate databases.
These days, they’re not just
after your credit cards and bank accounts – identity theft has expanded to
fraud involving cell phone service, cable TV, your power, gas, and water
utilities, internet payment services, mortgages, medical insurance, auto
financing, and government benefits. There’s
even a growing trend of thieves using your identity to obtain employment (and
then stealing from the inside,) and evading arrest using your identity as a
cover.
So the big question is: who
is there to protect you? If you’re
counting on bank and corporate protocols to keep your data secure, you might be
sadly disappointed. Only about 45% of
data theft was discovered by financial institutions, who notified their
compromised consumers. If their
information was used to open new, fraudulent accounts, the financial
institution sounded the alarm only 15% of the time. 21% of victims were alerted to the
malfeasance when an outside company or agency reach out, and 13% found out when
they received unpaid bills in the mail.
Once identity
theft occurs, it’s difficult to trace the source of the leak. Only 32% of identity theft victims ever find
out how and where their information was stolen.
They should
check their own credit reports at least three times a year, when consumers are
entitled to free annual
copies of their credit reports from the
three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
They should
use secure wifi when pulling up sensitive information online, use online
security measures and strong passwords.
Shredding
mail before you throw it away, and verify every email and phone call before you
offering any information.
But the best
way to protect yourself is to use a great credit report monitoring and
protection service, like those offered by Blue Water Credit.
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