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Preventing Identity Theft: Here’s How To

There is a substantial increase in the number of identity thieves. Everyone should be worried about the statistics. Fortunately, it is not that hard to protect your identity against the fastest-growing criminal activity in the country. The most important thing is for you to be very careful in giving away your personal information whether online or offline.

There are three common types of identity thefts – bank fraud, phone fraud, and credit card fraud. In whatever method they use, these criminals gain access to your account information, pretend to be you and purchase items or open new lines of credit, withdraw money from your account and so on. However, these are some ways to protect yourself from these thieves.

• Don’t bring all your credit cards wherever you go.

If you limit the number of cards you carry, you won’t lose that much in case you are robbed. Also, make sure you don’t bring with you records of PIN.

• Lock your credit profiles at the credit bureaus.

You have the right to call the credit bureaus and ask them to freeze your accounts. This way, no new credit can be made without your permission and no one or no company can gain access to your credit profile without your consent. By locking your credit profile, only you and the companies or banks you have credit relationship with can view your profile. This step is very beneficial because it closes one of the avenues where thieves get your personal info and it stops pre-approved credit applications from arriving at your mailbox.

• Get a Post Office box

This is a locked mailbox that keeps your incoming mails safe from everyone, especially from thieves. When you already have this secure mailbox, have your check, bills, and other important mails sent to this locked box.

• Be extra careful when giving away your personal information.

Since this can’t be avoided when shopping or doing transactions online, make sure that the person or company you’re dealing with is legitimate. Before you type your credit card number, look at the address bar first and make sure that the site’s URL starts with “https.” Also look for the closed padlock symbol at the bottom right hand corner of your browser. If that symbol appears, it means your browser is strongly connected to the website.

Author and entrepreneur Bernz Jayma P. is the owner of an identity theft blog, Learn up -to-date information on how you can stop and prevent identity theft by visiting http://www.IdentityTheftProtection.org.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/preventing-identity-theft-heres-how-to-877283.html

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