Knowing how to avoid identity theft is one of the most important steps any individual can take today to ensure their financial security and good credit standing. Failure to learn how to avoid identify theft can result in financial loss, credit rating reverses and a tangled mess that can take years to unravel.
Store your financial information, such as bank account numbers and credit card accounts, in a secure, locked location which strangers or visitors to your home or office cannot easily access. Only share your account numbers with legitimate businesses in order to conduct financial transactions. Do not automatically give any financial account information on an application just because you are asked for it.
Guard the confidentiality of your social security number. Identity theft experts who gain access to this number literally have a key to unlock plenty of other financial details about you in order to do major damage.
No one wants to think of a tragedy like the Haiti earthquake in conjunction with charity scams, but unfortunately there are a lot of people out there willing to make a buck any way they can. A charity scam provides the perfect opportunity to rip people off. Many individuals who are very wary when it comes to ‘get rich quick’ schemes are more than willing to open their wallets without question to help other people.
Recognizing charity scams
Obviously, charity scams takes advantage of your willingness to help others. But beware: just about anyone can solicit money to help the Haiti earthquake, or Russian orphans, or Middle Eastern war victims. And while it might feel selfish to hold back, you want to be sure that you’re helping the people who really need help — not a bunch of identity thieves.
How can you recognize a charity scam? There are a couple of dead giveaways:
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You’ve heard of it before most likely but are you really sure what identity theft is? It’s when someone besides you gets a hold of personal information and uses it without your knowledge. They may use your social security number to get credit cards established for them. Or they can use a credit card to make purchases. Consider using one of the identity theft protection services to help prevent identity theft in the first place.
No matter how they do it, it can lead to you having bad credit, because the chances of them paying for what they got are nil. Meaning you will be stuck with huge bills, or telephone or other bills in your name. One’s that weren’t really yours but were set up by another person by using your information.
There are many ways that they can come up with your social security number; the most likely is through loss of your wallet. Or perhaps you threw away papers that had your number on them. If it wasn’t destroyed you never know who can get that trash.
As we enter 2010 it is clear that companies and consumers alike are not being well-served when it comes to handling data breaches. From the viewpoint of businesses, the vague, overlapping, and ineffective patchwork of regulations is not only difficult to manage, it actually acts as a deterrent to reporting data breaches. And for consumers, the lack of clear regulatory oversight means that millions of people are never informed that their personal information has been compromised.
The fact that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has delayed the implementation of its Fact Act Red Flags Rules regulations not once, or twice, but three times, sends the wrong signals to compliance officers. How can regulations be taken seriously if they are delayed over and over again?
The Federal Government’s New HITECH Act, which went into effect on September 23, 2009, strengthens the rules designed to protect the privacy and security of health-related data. However, vague wording in the regulations written by the Office of Health and Human Services (HHS) has opened the door to under-reporting of data breaches, which will in turn put breach victims at undue risk of medical identity theft.
Further, 45 states now have 45 different data breach reporting laws on the books. The result of this hodgepodge system makes complying with the law unwieldy for organizations that attempt to put homegrown data breach management systems in place. (Full disclosure: my firm does provide an easy to deploy, on-demand compliance solution – but that is another topic for another day.)
Congress has been working on and off for three years on this issue, but to date, it has failed to come up with a reasonable law that would ease the burden on businesses and provide reasonable protections for consumers. Virtually all of the draft bills being bantered around would be weak and ineffective.
The fact is, as Javelin Strategy and Research noted in its research report published on October 27, 2009, consumers who are victims of a data breach are four times more likely to become victims of fraud. Data breaches have serious consequences, and should be taken seriously by all concerned.
Here’s hoping that in 2010 both regulators and businesses will be able to come to terms with regulatory standards that are easy to meet, lower corporate risk, and actually help to protect people from identity theft.
As of January 19, 2010, the total number of breaches reported by the ITRC is 15. For more information about the ITRC breach reports click here
2010 ITRC Breach Report
2010 ITRC Breach Stats Report
Branch is currently Associate Dean of Student Services, Henley Putnam University. This on-line university specializes in professional studies in Intelligence, Protection Management and Terrorism-Counterterrorism studies for military, law enforcement, security and intelligence professionals. He was formerly the Manager of Safety and Security Compliance at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Mr. Walton has more than 40 years direct experience in federal law enforcement, private security and college teaching. He retired from the United States Secret Service after a 21-year career. Assignments included Special Agent-in-Charge of a field office, instructor and Assistant Agent-in-Charge of
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After you’ve had identity theft done to you, you may wonder what that thief will be doing with your information. There are many reasons why people seek to steal others information if only to make a better life for themselves at your cost. Because of this crime, you should consider using ID protection to help limit your exposure.
Opening credit card accounts with your information and charging up those bills is one thing identity thieves do. Of course they will not be paying back that money, but you will be stuck with the bill. At least until you have it straight about your card being stolen.
See they will change the address and you won’t even get the bills. So the biggest way a lot of people will find out they have been the victim of identity theft is when they get a call. That call will be from a credit reporting agency, or collector. Asking when you plan on paying your bill, one that you weren’t even aware of until that moment.