There’s good news and bad news relating to identity theft. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, the good news, well, compared to previous years, is that there were only 8.1 million American adults victimized by identity theft in 2010. The bad news is that (a) that is still a whole lot of people and (b) it is costing victims more to clear their names than it used to, in both time and money.
Javelin sites the improvement in the economy as a reason why identity theft cases have dropped some. President James Van Dyke said, “As the economy has improved, there’s less pressure.†This essentially means that some who may have resorted to identity theft due to financial straits may have given up on this pursuit.
So why the increase in cost to clear your name, which rose 63% from 2009 to 2010? Some of it can be attributed to a rise in fraud involving debit cards. While most major credit cards have liability protection policies, many debit cards do not. Also, since the money charged on a debit card comes out of the consumer’s bank account immediately, it can be harder, and sometimes impossible, to get that money back.
A lot of people don’t understand that they need to treat their debit cards just like they would cash. They cannot leave them sitting out in plain view, even somewhere as nonthreatening as the office. They should also never write their personal identification numbers on their cards, or on anything for that matter. It’s much better to simply memorize what it is and keep it in the mental vault.
When using the card at the ATM or to make purchases, it’s important to insure that no one is watching, either to get the card number, the PIN or both. Unfortunately, you even have to keep your eye on store clerks at times. Just do so subtly. There’s no need to give everyone the evil eye, since most prove to be honest. It’s just that untrustworthy minority.
Here are a lot more identity theft tips you can use to keep yourself protected whether you have an identity theft protection plan or not.