Secure Your Personal Information to Avoid Identity Theft

By Joe Wilson

IDENTITY THEFT or commonly known as id theft is one type of crime where one person use some very crucial key piece of information of other persons such as credit card number, account number, social security number in order to portray someone else. That information can be used to obtain credit, merchandise, property and services in the name of the dupe person. IDENTITY THEFT is the most profitable crime mostly used to achieve financial gain, and the crimes incorporated by the masters of identity theft are often assigned to the victim. Not only has the thief acquired money of the victims but often the use it to commit crimes and illegal activities to the name of the victims. By stealing identity like account number or social security number the thieve can open a bank account or credit card account and then apply for loan and remove funds from varying financial accounts.

There are mainly two types of IDENTITY THEFT- one is account takeover theft and the other is true name theft. In case of account takeover theft the theft uses stolen personal information to gain access to the persons existing account. Often the use the stolen identity to acquire even more credit product and then will change your address so can never see what amount of money stitches up.

Your social security number is also in the vulnerability list for identity theft. With more and more illegal entries in a country and requiring a social security number to get a job, you social security number is at risk. These numbers are also rarely checked for scam. So by the time you realize that you are at a loss, it is too late. The scammers may use it to open new credit card accounts and the most difficult thing is to know what has happened because the monthly billing statements go wherever the imposter wants.

If you are a victim of IDENTITY THEFT then you should do the following steps: Place a fraud alert for your reports, close the account that you know or feel have been fiddled with or opened fraudulently, file a complaint with the FTC (federal trade commission), and take help from your local police to reach the community where the identity theft took place.

A careless customer fails to consider the mistake in providing his personal information to an unknown source either through e-mails or phone calls. Thus, be alert and don't give out any information to a financial institution where you do not have an account. In addition, remember to check your credit report to ensure that no one has accessed your credit card number.

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