For cyber thieves, your personally identifiable information is as good as gold. Your name, email address, phone number, Social Security number, passwords and other information can allow criminals to wreak havoc on your financial accounts, medical records, credit health and even your job prospects.
If you’re not actively protecting yourself from identity theft, experts say, you should start now. If you don’t, having your identity stolen could result in severe financial consequences, a destroyed reputation or even death (if a thief starts messing with your medical history). “The ramifications of identity theft are terrifying,” says Adam Levin, chairman and founder of CyberScout, a provider of identity and data defense services, and author of “Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves.”
You should be actively hiding your information from potential hackers and protecting your data if it’s already in their hands, experts say. Here’s how to protect yourself against cyber criminals and reduce the fallout from identity theft.
[See: 10 Ways to Protect Yourself From Online Fraud.]
What is identity theft? This crime occurs when someone steals your information, such as your Social Security number or name, to commit fraud. The criminal might open credit cards in your name, steal your tax refund or use your information to get medical treatment.
This can have a real impact on your finances, experts say. “Your identifying information is just as valuable as your cash,” says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center. So, it’s important that consumers guard their information closely and only give it out when necessary.
How do you know if your identity has been stolen? You may not realize that someone has decided to use your information against you until you see a mysterious charge on your credit card, receive an unexpected debt-collection call or notice that your credit score has tanked. That’s why it’s important to regularly check your accounts, including reviewing credit card and bank statements, downloading your free annual credit report from each of the three credit-reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — and creating notifications on your financial accounts.
[See: 9 Financial Tools You Should Be Using.]
Know how to prevent identity theft. It’s a tall order to completely prevent identity theft, but concerned consumers can take steps to minimize the risk that they’ll have their identities stolen and reduce the damage if it is. “Consumers should do everything they can to protect themselves, but even that still might not prevent them from having their identity stolen,” says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com.
Here are a few ways to reduce the chances that your identity will be stolen — and the odds that your finances or credit will be harmed in the process.
— Use strong passwords. Sorry, “123456” or “password” won’t cut it when it comes to building a strong password. Invent hard-to-guess codes by building them around a phrase or using a password manager. Don’t forget to change them regularly. Set up two-factor authentication, which creates an extra hurdle for thieves to clear.
— Limit what you share online. Criminals may be able to guess your passwords, confirm your identity or figure out the answers to your security questions by the information you post on social media sites, such as Facebook and Instagram. If you can, aim not to share your birthdate, address, phone numbers or other personally identifiable information on these sites. Another strategy Levin recommends is to lie when answering your security questions. For example, you can tell a program that your mother’s maiden name is “Jones” even though it’s really “Smith.” Assuming you can keep your lies straight, it’s a good way to prevent others from guessing your answers.
— Be careful when giving out your information. One way cyber criminals access your personal information is by tricking you into giving it to them. They launch “phishing” scams where they pose as your bank, credit card company, a tax collector or another institution in an attempt to ask you for your credit card, bank account or PIN numbers or other information. One rule of thumb: If the institution is calling you, they should know your info already, experts say. “Never authenticate yourself to anyone who contacts you,” Levin says.
— Buy a shredder. Another way thieves may find your information is through discarded mail and other hard-copy documents. Buy a shredder and pulverize mail and financial documents before throwing them out. If you don’t own a shredder, a local store, such as Staples, may be able to cut up your documents for a fee.
— Trust your gut. If a phone call, link or email seems suspicious, trust your instincts. Hang up the phone. Don’t click the link. Delete the email. If you’re not sure whether a call was legit, you can always call back — using the number on the back of your credit card or on the company’s website — to confirm whether the caller was the real deal.
— Check or freeze your credit reports. Consumers can freeze their credit reports with each credit bureau to ensure that credit issuers can’t access their history, resulting in the denial of most credit applications. That freeze will stay in place until the consumer decides to “thaw” it. One drawback: It will cost money to freeze and unfreeze your report, so expect to pay around $10 or so, depending on the state you live in.
— Set up alerts. Scammers may test out a small transaction of a few dollars on your credit card to make sure that it works before launching a full-scale attack, so it’s worth paying attention to even the tiniest charges on your accounts. Many banks and credit cards allow you to set up real-time text, email or mobile app alerts, which are a useful tool for savvy consumers. Request to be notified any time there is a transaction of more than $0 on your account, says Alan Brill, senior managing director in the Cyber Security and Investigations practice at Kroll, a company that helps organizations prevent and respond to cybersecurity risks. “You want to be notified any time that credit card is used.”
[Read: How Consumers Can Protect Their Online Privacy Right Now.]
Report identity theft. If you’ve discovered that your identity has been stolen, report it through the appropriate channels. Call the companies where the fraud occurred and let them know that someone has taken your identity. Ask them to place a fraud alert on your accounts, then change your login and passwords. If a new account was opened, ask the business to close the account and send you a letter confirming that the account wasn’t yours, you are not liable for it and it has been removed from your credit report. If someone is making bogus charges on your credit card, remember that credit cards limit your liability to $50 for a stolen card, and you’re not liable if just your card number was stolen, so they’ll typically protect your funds better than a debit card or cash.
If you’re worried about this theft impacting your credit health, contact the credit-reporting bureaus to correct any false information and ask for a fraud alert or a freeze on your account. Consider reporting to the Federal Trade Commission at IdentityTheft.gov, where you can log an official statement about the crime. You may even file a report through your local police department. Depending on the type of identity theft, you may also need to alert authorities about your misused Social Security number and replace it at your local SSA office or stop debt collectors calling you about a debt you don’t owe.
Don’t forget about child identity theft. Unfortunately, children are vulnerable to identity theft, too. A cyber criminal may steal your kid’s personal information to open credit cards, fill out a W-2 employment form or rack up debt. Good news: There are ways to protect your children from identity theft.
Parents should be on the lookout for warning signs, such as credit card offers or debt collection requests addressed to their children. They may want to check whether their child has a credit report, even before the kid turns 18, through the three credit-reporting bureaus. If the child is too young to take on credit, then you shouldn’t see a report in his or her name. Another good time to do this is near your child’s 16th birthday, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That will give you time to correct any errors and fight fraud before your child needs to apply for a job, college loan, apartment lease or other consumer credit item.
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How to Protect Yourself From Identity Theft originally appeared on usnews.com
