Understanding Identity Theft: Protect Your Identity From Theft

By Ronald Jessen

Identity theft is when a criminal acquires and uses a person's personal information and then uses that information to, in a sense, becomes that person for a while.
The most common uses of identity theft are credit card and check fraud.
Identity theft can really destroy someone's life for months or even years. The most common result is destruction of credit.
This over 90 page book will identify various types of identity theft and ways you can protect yourself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ray Caran
• Release date: Feb 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310842085

Book preview

1

What Is Identity Theft?

Identity theft is when a criminal acquires and uses a person’s personal information and then uses that information to, in a sense, becomes that person for a while.

The most common uses of identity theft are credit card and check fraud. Some other uses that can occur are illegal immigration, blackmail, crime or just attacking an individual for revenge.

Identity theft can really destroy someone’s life for months or even years. The most common result is destruction of credit.

People often get credit cards and open bank accounts in the victim’s name and buy all kinds of expensive merchandise they can either keep or sell for cash.

In extreme cases, loans can be taken out for thousands of dollars and the identity thief can simply disappear. Luckily, photo identification is necessary for high priced transactions and loans most of the time.

Credit isn't the only thing that can be destroyed by identity theft. Many times, criminals will use your personal information to get a driver’s license because they are wanted or plan to commit many crimes very soon.

If these criminals rent a car that is used in a crime, guess who is the first suspect? That's right, it’s YOU. By the time you even realize this has happened, your name and picture might be all over the news.

This can annihilate your good name in your community or even the entire country. Even when it is proved you had absolutely nothing to do with the crime, people will still associate you with that particular event.

2

Learn How to Prevent Identity Theft

No one wants to be a victim of identity theft, as it is so difficult to clear all the transaction made by these thieves. If you do not have enough knowledge about it, you will not be prevented from being a victim of it.

All you need to do is to prevent yourself from being the victim. However, how are you going to do that?

Read this article and find out how you can prevent being victimized by these thieves.

The best way to protect you from being a victim of identity theft is to protect your information. You should know all the possibilities that your information can be obtained. You must be of good control over your information to avoid it from being stolen.

You should be aware of the means to obtain your information. There are in fact many ways to get it. These are the following means:

Purchasing goods and services over the net

Online banking

Throwing away your previous credit cards without destroying it

Storing personal data and information in your computer

Cellular phone use

Wireless phone use

Using your passwords and numbers for identification

You need to safeguard your personal information using the following techniques. You should be conscious about it, as it will give you proper education on what to do and what to learn in terms of handling your account. Follow these simple guidelines to protect yourself from the harm of identity theft:

It is safer to memorize your security codes and numbers other than writing it down. Never print these numbers on your checks.

Give your files protection from making passwords. These can only be opened if your personal security code or password is entered. Never use your birth date or your name as a password; it can be an easy guess to the people.

Require your credit bureaus to give you regular reports on the review of your credit accounts.

Install software in your computer to avoid malicious software to enter your computer. Software such as firewall will minimize the chances of downloading bad software such as spyware, adware, and key loggers.

This software will unnoticeably enter your computer to spy on all the operation made in your computer. With the use of firewalls, you are sure to