How to Prevent Identity Theft from Occurring

There are a lot of different forms of identity theft that happen on a daily basis to thousands of consumers. Some people will have their credit cards stolen, while others will have their bank accounts and entire credit wiped clean in a matter of days. Most victims of identity theft are not even aware they are a victim until they receive a phone call from a collection agency. The damage has already been done by that time.

Today, it is very easy for a criminal to get a hold of your personal information. Criminals no longer have to go through your trash, home, or wallet to get your personal information. With so much technology available at our fingertips, criminals have a whole new list of ways to steal your identity. There are several ways you can take hold of your identity protection and ensure that you do not become a victim.

Fraud Alerts – You can set up fraud alerts on your financial accounts so that you can be notified if there are any changes to them immediately. Fraud alerts can come directly to your email or even text messaged to your phone with some companies! There are some banks and credit card companies that will allow you to set limits on your account prior to a fraud alert taking place. This can be things such as a spending limit, ATM withdrawal limit, etc. You can also set up your accounts to notify you if there are changes in your address, email, phone number, or any other pertinent information for your accounts.

A fraud alert is your first notification of any activity. They help you be more than aware of what is going on and every little change that happens with your accounts comes directly to you. Most banks and credit card services will offer fraud alert services at no extra charge to you and they are a key to identity protection.

Use of Credit Freezes – By using a credit freeze, you can tell just who is attempting to access your credit and information. Basically, a credit freeze will place a hold on your credit and no one can view your credit information unless you give them permission to do so. You can request a credit freeze by contacting one of the three reporting agencies. Some agencies will require that you be a victim or think you are a victim of fraud prior to allowing a credit freeze to be placed on your account.

Online Protection – Majority of identity thefts occur from a thief obtaining your information online. You should always protect your computer using anti-virus and privacy software that does not allow a thief to hack into your computer, emails, etc and steal your personal information. Never fill out online forms for websites that are not using a secure server and never save your credit card information or personal information on the internet for hackers to access.

Identity protection has never been more important with the growing numbers of victims that join the list each year. Since identity thieves are constantly improving their methods, the only way we can protect ourselves is to stay a step ahead and not allow them to get our personal information to begin with.