Identity Theft: Act Now to Protect Yourself
As new research on identity theft continues to roll in, it paints an unsettling picture of how good crooks are getting at their craft. Although the number of U.S. breaches fell in 2018, the number of records exposed containing sensitive, personally identifiable information (such as Social Security and financial-account numbers) spiked by 126% from the year before, according to a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center. "That tells us thieves aren't committing less crime--they're just getting better at it," says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the ITRC.
One of the largest breaches disclosed last year was at Marriott International, which admitted in November that its Starwood guest reservation database had been hacked starting in 2014. That exposed up to 383 million guest records (though the number of guests affected is likely smaller because of multiple records). Many records contained data such as passport numbers, addresses, dates of birth and, in some cases, customers' payment-card information. Quora, an online question-and-answer platform, also discovered a breach of account information including names, e-mail addresses and passwords of up to 100 million users. Hackers may try to enter stolen usernames and passwords into other sites--say, those of banks or retailers--in hopes that some customers reuse their log-in details across several accounts. "The chances that some of those credentials will work on one or more other websites are exceptionally high," says Velasquez.
Fortunately, none of those 2018 breaches involved Social Security numbers--a key piece of information a thief can use to run away with someone else's identity. But the 2017 Equifax data breach exposed the names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and other sensitive data of more than 145 million Americans. Those bits of info are permanent pieces of your identity, and they may sit idle for years before a criminal puts them to work.
The overall number of fraud victims fell significantly last year from 2017, thanks largely to a decline in fraud against existing credit and debit cards, according to a Javelin Strategy & Research report. But in both 2017 and 2018, the number of victims who faced some liability for fraud more than doubled from 2016, and so did the victims' out-of-pocket costs. Incidents of fraud in which criminals open new financial accounts in a victim's name or take over existing non-card accounts, such as brokerage or retirement accounts, were well above historical levels in 2017 and 2018 and "are much more difficult, and frequently expensive, for victims to resolve," says Javelin.
Sophisticated schemes. Imposter scams, in which crooks claim to be representatives of the IRS, Social Security Administration or other entities in attempts to glean personal information or money from their targets, topped the list of consumer complaints submitted to the Federal Trade Commission in 2018--the first time such scams have reached the number-one spot. Scammers are taking aim at both consumers and businesses with increasingly realistic "phishing" e-mails, persuading individuals to click on links or attachments that could infect their computers with malware or prompt them to send sensitive information.
In early 2017, Pooja Raval found out that a staff member of the community health center where she worked as a
