Everyone knows that identity theft is caused by criminals who steal people’s personal information. Or is it? One blogger and identity theft expert, Robert Siciliano, says that it’s not the thieves, per se, who are the biggest part of the problem. Instead, it is the people who are not keeping their personal information secure.
For example, he brings up how one employee at a financial institution who doesn’t password protect his laptop and leaves it behind on the subway can in effect cause a security breach that releases all of the information on present account holders. He also blames people who don’t shred sensitive documents before they throw them away, especially those who work at financial institutions.
So what is the lesson to be learned here? Even if you do your best to secure your own personal information, it doesn’t mean someone else won’t release it all into the world for you. Now that doesn’t mean that you should just give up and announce your Social Security number on the side of a bus (like the CEO of LifeLock choose to do). Instead, you need to continue what you’re doing as well as drive defensively, so to speak.
Driving defensively, when it pertains to identity theft, means to anticipate problems before they occur so that you can prevent them from happening. Keep the mindset that you will be targeted instead of thinking that identity theft won’t happen to you. This is not a pessimistic approach, but rather a realistic one, since the Federal Trade Commission reported that identity theft complaints rose 21.5 percent last year and resulted in 9.9 million victims of this crime.
For starters, check one of your credit reports every four months (rather then all them at once) and make sure you know them backwards and forwards so you can recognize right away if something doesn’t look right. Second, check your credit account statements each and every month, so you know how much your bills are supposed to be and can be sure there are no extra charges on them. (Note that this doesn’t just mean credit card bills, but rather all of your bills, even your utilities.) If you don’t get your bill on time, let the company know ASAP. There could be a chance a representative is sending it to the wrong address unbeknown to you.
If you have any concerns, any at all, ask the credit bureaus to put fraud alerts on your credit files. This will make it so creditors will be asked to contact you before opening new accounts. If you don’t want to go through this trouble, or you just want greater peace of mind, sign up with an identity theft protection service and let the company do it for you. There are many different options for an affordable price.
Another option is to use a database company such as Identity Guard to monitor databases and verify that your information is correct. Incorrect information, though at times just a typo or minor error, is often a sign of identity theft. Though not as effective you can also look at credit monitoring services where the company contacts you if there are any changes to your credit report.
Since there are hundreds and hundreds of data breaches each year it sure is nice to have an identity protection service you can count since you can’t be sure your information isn’t being distributed due to a breach of common sense.