Has My Information Been Compromised?
When your personally identifiable information, or PII for short, is compromised, that means that it has been disclosed accidentally or on purpose without your consent. Often this happens because you responded to a phishing email, were the victim of a data breach, had something containing your information stolen, or a company you do business with leaked it.
Note that this is not the same as having identity theft committed against you. At this point, you can still take steps to prevent someone from actually using your information – even if this person has access to it. In fact, you may even be able to stop a criminal from selling it if you hire a company like LifeLock or TrustedID.
Criminals, PII are you sure? Yes, according to Wikipedia “PII can be exploited by criminals to stalk or steal the identity of a person, or to plan a person’s murder or robbery, among other crimes.” Of course, the most common reason is identity theft, so if your information was compromised in such a way that you legitimately believe that you may become a victim of identity theft then the FACT Act gives you the right to place fraud alerts on your account thru the 3 major credit bureaus… Experian, Equifax and Trans Union.
So What Else Should You Do?
The first step is to close the financial accounts that you know have been compromised. If you’re not sure if they have been compromised or not, change the account passwords and monitor them closely by checking your statements and credit report. Any doubt? Get rid of them. Your bank should understand you need a new account number.
If your problem is with a government ID, like a driver’s license or a passport, contact the issuing agency in regards to having the documentation canceled and replaced. Since you are not proven to be a victim of identity theft, note that there may be charges for some of these services.
Order and begin a vigilant review of your credit reports.
One of the great things about holding an identity theft protection plan is that oftentimes you don’t have to worry about going through all these steps yourself. Nor do you have to worry so much about monitoring the use of your credit for fraud. A good plan will do that for you. A good plan will also help protect you from identity theft in many other ways. The more worried you are about your information getting into the wrong hands the more seriously you should consider purchasing one of these.
Start this year off smart with a new financial plan, and see just how good of a fit an identity protection service can be for your budget. It could end up saving you thousands of dollars. Not to mention a whole ton of agony and your valuable time.