Prevent Identity Theft

The numbers of people who are defrauded of millions of dollars by identity thieves have grown to alarming proportions and the problem gets worse every day. Criminals will steal personal and private information of unsuspecting victims to commit illegal acts.

Identity theft will be very difficult to prevent because every person has his personal information on file somewhere, so the next best thing would be to lessen the risk. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation\’s consumer protection agency, encourages consumers to Deter, Detect and Defend to help cut down on identity theft.

Deter

Deter identity thieves by safeguarding your information.

Be very careful putting in print personal information, and if unavoidable destroy any such documents as soon as possible.

Protect your Social Security number. It should be given out only when and if necessary, use other documents when identifying yourself.

Don\’t give out personal information via the phone, mail or the Internet unless you know who you are dealing with.

Detect

Keep a close tab on your financial records and transactions, and have an eye on anything that is out of the ordinary. For example, if you have missing bills or statements, it could be that they were intercepted, or if you received requests for confirmation or follow ups on business that you have no recollection of, if could be an attempt to draw out information from you.

Defend

If you have reasons to believe that your identity is compromised, you must take the following steps:

Contact the fraud departments of any one of the three consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) to place a fraud alert on your credit report. The fraud alert tells creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or making any changes to your existing accounts. You only need to contact one of the three companies to place an alert.

Stop all transactions and close any of your accounts that may have been compromised.

File a report with your local police or the police in the community where the identity theft took place. Get a copy of the report or, at the very least, the number of the report, to submit to your creditors and others who may require proof of the crime. Submit a complaint to the FTC. FTC is the agency charged with keeping a record of identity theft cases for the reference of the government agencies responsible of the investigations. The more data the FTC has, the better equipped will be the law enforcement agencies in combating the crime.

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