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Most of you have heard about Identity theft and some of have even
experienced it. What exactly is Identity theft and how does it happen? How
does Identity theft occur and is there any way we can protect
ourselves from identity theft?
Identity theft is a serious crime that can happen to anybody. Identity
theft is when someone steals your personal information such as you
Social Security number, or credit card number and in some extreme cases
your whole personality. Furthermore, they would steal your personal
information and use it to commit fraud and many other crimes. There are
about 9 million American’s that are victim’s to identity fraud each year!
There are many different types of Identity theft. The most simply and
least serious would be if someone steal your credit card information.
This type of fraud is the most common and least serious. Someone uses
your card without your permission. Then there is a identity fraud when
someone steal your social security number, they would use your social
security to open bank account and take credit cards. In extreme cases
they would purchase luxury items claiming that it was you buying them.
The most sever identity theft is when someone steal’s all your
information including your social security , your name, your credit cards and
just about everything else. In this case someone else simply claims
that he is you. They would use this information to open cards, buy items,
commit crimes, steal all your money from your accounts and just about
anything else you have.
So the question now is how does this happen? There are many different
way that identity theft can occur. One way would be dumpster diving,
where someone else searches your trash to find your personal information.
Another way is called skimming, this is when you are paying or giving
someone (even larger companies) your credit card. They take your
credit card and swipe it through a small storage device. They then take
your information and use it to buy whatever they want. Phishing is yet
another way criminals can steal your identity. Phishing is when the
criminals introduce themselves as a bank or financial institution and ask
for you billing information. This is usually done by email or phone,
the criminals do not expose themselves when doing this and they never
invite you to come to the bank or institution. Finally you have the
stealing, this is self-explanatory someone walks by and steals your
wallet, purse, letter, mail or what every they can grab that may have your
personal information.
Now we need to talk about how we can protect ourselves from identity
theft. We must and I repeat must shred all of mail that is going to the
garbage. This is crucial because this type of identity theft is
becoming more and more popular. Secondly, if you can pay with cash do so.
There are too many people that are just looking to steal your credit
card information. This type of stealing is very hard to trace because
your card gets swiped in many places. Finally if you think you are a
victim of identity theft don’t just ignore it call your bank and talk to
them. Contac the police and tell them what happen!
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