Eleven percent of identity theft crimes occur online.
Let’s face it: Almost everyone’s on Facebook, and if you’re not, chances are you’ll succumb to social pressure to sign up eventually. It’s a great way to connect with friends and family all over the world and easily share your experiences with others. However, it’s not a good idea to go sharing personal information willy-nilly.
Facebook has made a number of updates to privacy settings since we wrote this popular post in 2008. So here we’ve collected an updated list of six ways to manage your privacy on Facebook and keep your personal information safe:
1. Limit the amount of personal information available on your profile.
A poll of Facebook usersmissioned by NextAdvisor found that 27% of respondents listed their full name, date of birth, phone number, and email address on their Facebook profile.
- Identity theft starts with the misuse of your personal identifying information such as your name, Social Security number, credit card numbers, or other financial account information.
- Check your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus every year.
- Open your credit card bills and bank statements right away. Review your statements and close unused accounts. Be aware if bills don’t arrive on time. It may mean that someone has changed contact information to hide fraudulent charges.
- Don’t carry your Social Security card or PIN numbers in your purse or wallet because of what can happen if they fall into the wrong hands.
- Avoid giving any personal information over the phone, mail, or Internet unless you know who you are dealing with. Give it to them in person instead.
- Criminals pretend they are collecting money for victims of a natural disaster.
When you hear that about 10 million Americans are victimized by identity theft each year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, you may wonder why the government isn’t doing anything to try and stop these crimes. However, the fact is that the government is trying. In fact, in the past few years, several bills have been made into law to help aid in prevention. The three biggest ones are as follows:
Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act In 1998, the federal government took a huge step in the war against identity theft: making this crime a federal one when it involved activity between more than one state. Before this, it was pretty much up to the states to figure out the prosecution and punishment for themselves. As a result of this law, some sentencing guidelines were put into play, and thieves faced penalties of up to 30 years in jail – plus the option of getting consecutive sentences if they had multiple convictions.
According to the results of a recently released 2008 U.S. Justice Department study an estimated 11.7 million Americans (aged 16 and over) were victims of identity theft. The survey of 56,500 household residents is the first time the Bureau of Justice Statistics has collected data on these types of property crimes.
According to a press release from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 23 percent of those victimized suffered some financial loss, but the total cost to society came to $17.3 billion during the two-year period of the study.
Due to the fact that identity theft is so rampant – with about 10 million victims a year – a lot of financial institutions are stepping up their security methods in order to help prevent identity theft. Here are some of the things they are doing, that go beyond just asking three privacy questions instead of one:
*Assigning a code a customer must use when initiating a funds transfer. This means that thieves need to have this code in order to perform that transaction.
*Initiating a notification to the bank when a customer changes his online bill pay to have a new recipient. This can prevent thieves from transferring themselves money from someone else’s account under the ruse of being a payment recipient.
*Using analytics to tell when a person logs on to his or her account from a channel not normally used; for example not from the office or home computer.
It’s no secret that identity theft can cause a consumer a lot of problems. He has to contact creditors to report the crime and change his or her account information, she has to try to get the money back that the thief has spent, and he has to work with the authorities to try to catch the criminal.
All of these things cost the victim time, and invariably money too. But there is another cost that the victim has to bear. That is an emotional one. When people think of identity theft, their thoughts often turn to the money lost, but it is not the only thing they worry about.
A Harris interactive poll came out with the following results, which you may find surprising: *Over 50 percent of respondents said they would be more concerned with the emotional impact of ID theft than with the time and money issues. *Approximately 75 percent said they would worry about who had access to their information.
Identity theft is a violation of law wherein a criminal deliberately uses another person’s personal information for personal benefits. One mistake leads to another and before you know it, it is your name that is in the hot list of the authorities. The criminal can use your identity to do a multiple of things such as opening new accounts and exhausting your credit cards. The authorities will think it was you who did the crimes. But then again, you are at home and living life before someone else forged your identity. The fact is, you don’t even know what’s happening behind your back. Identity fraud takes time before discovery.
You need protection against identity theft. One may put privacy barriers up and high and this may not even be enough. There is choice though to start protecting yourself today.