Becoming a victim of identity theft is no joke. It is one of the most frustrating and damaging crimes that can happen to you. The thing is, you can prevent it from happening if you only took the necessary steps to protect your identity.
It is not difficult to take these precautionary steps and they are worth every effort. If you consider how difficult and tedious it is to prove that you are innocent of fraudulent credit transactions, you will think that these preparations are actually a walk in the park.
5 strategies to keep thieves from stealing your identity
There are 5 important strategies to help keep thieves from stealing your identity. You can be as paranoid as you want to be when you are trying to protect yourself from identity theft.
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Do not be too free with your personal information. Be very careful about giving out your personal information. There are a lot of scammers out there who will really try to phish your information via email or bogus sites. It is very important that you double check any form (online or otherwise) that is asking you for private details.
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Educate yourself of the common fraud tactics. The FBI.gov website dedicated a webpage on their site that discusses the different scams that had been reported to them. You may want to visit this site every so often or at least sign up for FBI updates so you can receive important warnings in your personal email.
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Keep important cards and identification paraphernalia from your wallet. This is the first thing that thieves will target so keep important information from it. The same goes for your bag. If you do not need to bring it with you, just keep it in a safe place at home. Never place PIN numbers in a paper then store it in your wallet. Blank checks, spare keys and similar items must not be kept in your wallet.
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Make a photocopy of everything that is important. In case you feel safe carrying your Medicare or other important identification, you can make a photocopy of them and store them in your wallet instead. It will serve its purpose in emergencies – as long as you have someone immediately fetch the original at home. Any actual card that you have to put in your wallet (credit cards, debit cards, ATM, etc), must be photocopied too (front and back). That way, in case your wallet is stolen, you have a copy of all the information at home (or anyplace that you deem is safe).
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Check your credit report often. Lastly, you want to check your credit report as often as you can. Sometimes, things still slip past you and looking at your credit report every so often will help you identify if there are unauthorized transactions done in your name. This does not have to cost you a thing because you can get a free annual credit report from any one of the major credit bureaus.
4 things to do when your identity is taken from you
In case you find that you are a victim of identity theft, you need to take quick steps to head off any problem. If a transaction is already made on your behalf, try not to dwell on it too much. The faster you act, the less the damage will be.
Here are 4 important things that you must do immediately after learning that your information had been taken from you.
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File a report immediately. Contact everyone that has to be notified: credit card companies, insurance agencies, DMV, etc. You want them to freeze your account while you try to sort out the problem. You can file complaint through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website directly or through Fraud.org. The latter is run by the National Consumers League and is a partner of the FTC when it comes to these type of theft. You also have to file an official report in your local police station. Try to remember where you lost your wallet (in case this is how your identity was taken from you) and file a report in the local law enforcement in that area.
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Change PINs, passwords, security access and other important information. Work on changing important security access. If you are feeling paranoid about it, feel free to change everything. Arrange to get new IDs of the ones stolen from you and make sure all of it are reported as stolen or lost in your file.
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Activate the “fraud alert.” This is an additional protective measure that will hinder the thief from using your identity. Anyone using your credit information (even you) will be asked for additional identification before going through with any loan or credit application. You can file this in any of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax 1-800-525-6285; Experian 1-888-397-3742; TransUnion 1-800-680-7289). The first credit bureau you get in touch with is mandated to notify the other two. All three of them will notify creditors and lenders to be very careful when someone using your identification is trying to open a new account.
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Monitor your credit report. We are putting this here again because this report will hold the proof that you are indeed a victim of identity theft. After losing your wallet, get a copy of your credit report after two weeks to see if a credit had been made under your name that you are unaware of. This is enough time for an application to be made but it is usually not enough time for the issuance of the new card. Make another inquiry around 2 or 3 months after this.
Here is a video from the Federal Trade Commission with three specific steps that you need to immediately do when you find out that your identity had been stolen. Your quick action is very important so it pays to know what to do before identity theft actually happens to you.