Some Important Things You Need To Know About ID Theft

ID theft is more common then you realize. There are people that have ID theft going on for a long time, and yet they never noticed because they do not check their credit reports, and unless they apply for a loan and get denied, they have no clue that someone is out there getting credit on their name.

This is especially true when they have a popular name, like Joe Smith- or when they live in an area where their mail can be stolen from the mailbox…

Some ways to prevent ID theft (some of them are more obvious then others):

• Get a shredder and shred the stuff, so people can’t pick your garbage mail
• Make a reconciliation of your bank and credit card statements
• Be Smart on Social Networking Sites and forums where you give your
  date of birth.

  By doing so you are offering yourself up for id theft- your birthday is the key to unlocking your identity to millions of people.

• See if your credit card company will allow you to pick another form of ID question then your mothers’ maiden name. most, if not all banks, now allow that. Remember, a mother’s maiden name is easy to get hold of, by looking through marriage notices, genealogy sites, and especially when ID theft is being done by a friend, family or neighbor… which happens pretty often!)

There is also online ID theft vs. offline ID theft. for online ID theft, there is a series of videos that Google created jointly with the AARP, which are helpful… click here to view them.

If you have an extra minute, you should also take a peek at this, in which research in Carnegie Mellon has shown how easy it is to get the first five digits of someone’s social– and the last four digits are all that they would need to steal… and those are the four that are usually used and not hidden in communications between financial institutions, schools, and such.

and now, back to regular programming….

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