Protecting Your Identity
The Crime | Play Defense | Go on Offense | Ask for Help
The Crime
ID theft is the unlawful use of personal information to commit fraud and other crimes. Millions of Americans fall prey to ID thieves each year and the numbers continue to climb.
| An ID thief who obtains your Social Security Number can use it to open, or try to open, a credit card account in your name. |
Your at-risk personal information includes:
- Social Security numbers.
- Driver’s license numbers.
- Bank account numbers.
- Credit card numbers.
- Personal Identification Numbers (PINs).
- Passwords or other tools that allow access to financial resources.
Seizing The Opportunity
“These guys aren’t purse snatchers or pickpockets.”
Thieves can make off with your personal information in a variety of ways, not just by snatching purses and stealing wallets. For example, maybe your monthly credit card statement stops coming to your address. A thief might have stolen your mail or changed the mailing address for your account statement.
Here are more examples of how ID thieves strike:
- Mail — They take items likely to contain valuable information, such as bill payments, right out of your mailbox.
- Trash — They sift through your garbage for discarded receipts, bank statements, credit-card applications and anything else that could provide personal information or could be used to open new accounts in your name.
- Home — They burglarize your residence and carry off financial statements, checkbooks, Social Security Cards, birth certificates and whatever else they find lying around.
- Office — They bribe coworkers who have access to personal information, pose as business clients or take advantage of lax electronic security to access computers.
- Computer — They send emails posing as legitimate companies and ask that you verify personal information. This is known as “phishing.” Or, they contact a third party, posing as you, again seeking to verify personal information. This is known as “pretexting.”
| The Better Business Bureau reports that relatives, friends and casual acquaintances are just as likely to steal your identity as are anonymous online thieves. |
Play Defense: Steps you can take to foil ID thieves.
Go on Offense: Steps you should take if you have, or suspect you have, fallen victim to ID thieves.
Ask for Help: List of state and federal agencies you can call for information, answers and more.