It's time that you stop thinking identity theft can't happen to you. Consider the following statistics: Every minute there are at least 19 people that have their identity stolen. This translates into more then 10 million people a year! There are over 7 million households that had to deal with the devastation of identity theft in the year 2004.
with identity theft on the rise by more then 80% today can you honestly believe you are safe? The FBI currently has more then 2000 open cases of identity theft right now! The worst part, your kids aren't even safe. There are over 400,000 cases of child identity theft each year and that number is on the rise. The bottom line here is that it is more likely that your identity will be stolen then it won't unless you take the precautions to prevent this crime from happening to you. Every time you give out personal information over the internet, every time you hand the waiter or waitress your credit card and they walk off with it and every piece of mail you throw away without shredding that contains any personal information about you or your family members you are increasing the likelihood of your identity being stolen.
This includes any medical records and insurance information. Did you know that if someone else claims to be you, has tests run and is diagnosed with a disease of any sort it will be on your medical record for ever. It is important that you protect yourself and your family.
The first thing you should do after reading this article is get a copy of your credit report. Your credit report is going to be the first indication that someone else is using your identity. Unfortunately many people do not take the time to go through their report. It is more common then you realize for their to be mistakes and inaccurate information on your credit report. The next step is to not sign the back of your credit cards. While some places will tell you that they can not accept your credit or debit card then without a signature that is simply not true.
What they need to do is see your identification along with your credit card. They should be verifying that it is really you anyway. In this day and age shopping on the internet is a wonderful thing. We can buy just about anything we want, get all the information that we want all for a small price. That price could also come with the risk of your identity being stolen.
Consider setting up a separate account that is only used for internet shopping and then link that to a PayPal account. So that you aren't giving out your information to people when you are buying items. All someone needs to steal you identity is your birthday, name and address and social security number. Protect those precious items. If you don't feel secure enough to take care of it all yourself or fear having to wage the battle alone once your identity is stolen there are services available to you for a very small fee.
Look into those services and protect you and your family.
Don Hayes is an Independent Associate Small Business & Group Benefits Specialist. Some of PPL benefits are free letter writing on your behalf, free Experian report & score;etc If you are a victim of identity theft or know someone who has been, here's what you can do now to prevent, and safe guard yourself from being another statistic, watch this short video and when finish forward it over to a friend. http://www.SuccessProven.com .
