Identity Theft is a dangerous crime that has an increasing number of incidents happening each day. This crime involves using another person’s identity in order to steal from that person. The culprit who misrepresents himself or herself can have access to confidential and personal transactions.
This includes acquiring loans, purchasing through credit cards number, asking financial help on its behalf and related activities. Sad to say, the person being misrepresented is not aware of it. More often, victims suffer from this beginning from a simple loss of ones’ identification card.
Hence, the blog below covers facts about Identity theft in detail. Continue to read and get all the important information that may help you be protected from this crime.
Facts About Identity Theft:
According to Identity Theft Protection Reviews, data of 2017 reveals that approximately 7 million people have already been a victim of fraud. A big portion of this number are also victims of identity theft. Surprisingly, even some information under the bounds of confidentiality breach cannot be considered safe from identity theft. Medical documents under the care of schools and colleges may not have complete control against this crime.
Thus, below are some of the important information about identity theft:
- One of the most important and common causes of identity theft is the sharing of personal information on social media. It is because no one is in control over a number of online accounts when information has been disseminated through online platforms. Better delete this information.
- A data breach can also be a source of identity theft. A single data breach is enough to expose all personal information which might make a victim fall onto the traps made by identity thieves.
- Maliciously obtained social security numbers can also serve as access for identity thieves to proliferate. This commonly occurs when a victim accidentally lost an identification card, credit or debit cards. Be careful to make sure that all your cards are in your possession. If not, thieves, who gain access, might drain all your money away or make a shopping spree out of your money.
- Medical identity theft is also included in this crime. Thieves may squeeze information in any way possible which might be detrimental to the patient’s health. Information might be contaminated or might be used against the patient. Worst, the information might be claimed for health insurance without the knowledge of the actual patient.
- In other ways, some thieves might not actually use the information to directly gain something. However, they might use such information to blackmail the victim and forced that person to do things against his or her will. Thieves might threaten the victim to spread malicious information to many people and the person might suffer grave embarrassment and loss of dignity.
Final Words:
To protect yourself from theft identity, start to be extra mindful of your personal belongings including personal information. Make sure that your most important information, which you consider as highly confidential must only be relayed to trustworthy people. Always secure your IDs, credit and debit cards, and other cards that may contain vital information about you and avoid posting it online. Keep your log-in access to your online accounts and bank accounts only for yourself. After using online apps, see to it that you log-out properly to prevent other people to gain access and be tempted to steal.
When there is any unusual activity happened related to your personal information, report it immediately to authorities for you to be given with sufficient security. If you have been victimized, cooperating with professional companies may help you recover any loss from your personal accounts, whether a bank or online accounts. In other words, you really have to be careful.