WASHINGTON — American consumers are pretty scared they’ll have their identity stolen at some point, yet they’re not doing enough to protect it, according to a new report.
Bankrate says nearly eight in 10 Americans — or 77 percent — are afraid of that occurrence. Some 23 percent say they’re “very frightened,” according to the Bankrate poll. Nearly half of the American public has fallen victim to identity theft. Millennials — or those between 18 and 29 years old — are the least concerned, the data show.
“With news of a data hack nearly every week, consumers are doing themselves a disservice by not checking their credit reports regularly,” said Janna Herron, a Bankrate analyst.
Forty-two percent of Americans aren’t checking their credit reports and 41 percent conduct sensitive business on unsecured WiFi networks, according to Bankrate estimates.
“Best practices for protecting yourself against identity theft haven’t changed much since 2008,” said Rod Griffin, director of public education at Experian, which just experienced its own data breach. There, hackers stole the personal information of 15 million people.
To stay safe, you should do the following:
- Don’t respond to emails that ask for account numbers or other identifying information. Same thing goes for unexpected phone calls supposedly from your bank or other financial institution.
- Use strong passwords containing characters, numbers, and upper and lowercase letters for online banking and other financial transactions on websites.
- Consider using a fraud-monitoring service to get possible fraud alerts. Each credit reporting agency has its own, as does FICO.
Go here to read the full Bankrate report.
