Protecting Yourself From Identity Theft

Steps to Protecting Oneself From Identity Theft

Even if it has never happened to you, it has more than likely happened to someone you know. Identity theft and fraud is a nightmare that many individuals in America deal with too often. Statistics indicate that 1 in every 25 Americans fall victim to identity theft at any given time suffering an average of $631 in damages. As technology advances, these cases have become harder to detect and even harder to resolve. People have misunderstood about identity theft. Everyone thinks that it is just money that people are losing. But, that is not the case.

There are many factors involved in identity theft. The major factor being that people’s credit is being ruined, and it is not just a monetary issue. Banks and financial institutions suffer extreme losses due to them having to settle compensation claims. There is an obvious need for individuals to take necessary precautions as to protect your hard-earned money and wasted time in having to work towards a resolve.

Have your credit monitored

The old way of waiting for your bank statement to be sent to you in the mail in order to review the authenticity of the transactions usually meant waiting for months to analyze an account’s activities. This method takes too much time before any unusual activity is noticed. Also, this is a slow and outdated way of reviewing your account statement. It takes more time before fraudulent activity or theft is detected on an account. This will be more expensive and time consuming to resolve your case.  It has been established that it is much more effective to enlist the services of a credit monitoring serving company. What most people do not know is that many credit-offering services are free!

Use a smart card

Most cases of identity theft happen to people who have used either a debit card or credit card. That’s because they do not offer much protection against identify theft or fraudulent charges often times. A smart card is a regular credit or debit card that has been embedded with EMV microchip technology. It is operated only if the holder has a unique PIN number, making it much more difficult to become compromised.

Lock your phone

In modern age, the most widely used cellphone device is the smartphone. Different mobile applications are developing everyday. So, it is now possible to use the smartphone for almost every activity linked to the internet. If you do not use your smartphone for mobile or internet banking, you probably use it to access your email and social media sites. Many people carry their mobile phones to almost every place they go. So, there are pretty high chances of losing or getting their mobile phones stolen. Safeguarding the integrity of your personal information could be as simple as putting a screen lock and/or access codes to all areas of the device.

For more information on how to investigate any identity theft or the likelihood of becoming a victim of identity theft whether to your business or personal accounts, contact us to hire a professional to protect you.