What is Identity Fraud?
Identity theft is growing in the United States, and it's important to learn how you can protect yourself.
Identity fraud occurs when criminals misappropriate personal information from their victims and use it to carry out a number of unlawful activities such as applying for credit account or benefits in another persons name, taking over an existing account to steal money and run up debts, or to mask their real identities when apprehended for a crime.
Identity fraud is becoming more and more prevalent every year and in just 2008 alone there were thought to be over 9 million victims of identity fraud in the US alone, costing financial services millions of dollars to resolve.
It is important that you protect your identity and take responsibility for the personal information in your care. Be very careful of how you dispose of documents, especially bank statements and old credit cards, and invest in a shredder so that you can be sure thieves will not be able to recover any information from your rubbish. Be vigilant when online, and always delete unsolicited emails and never answer requests for personal information either through your inbox or when you are visiting any websites unless you can be sure the request is genuine. Never reveal your personal login information for online accounts (email, banking etc) to anyone, and if you have to write them down encode them and keep them in a safe place. Always cancel old credit card and bank accounts if you do not use them anymore, and keep the closure confirmation from the account provider in a safe place, in case you have to prove in the future you no longer are liable for that account.
Identity fraud is becoming more and more prevalent every year and in just 2008 alone there were thought to be over 9 million victims of identity fraud in the US alone, costing financial services millions of dollars to resolve.
It is important that you protect your identity and take responsibility for the personal information in your care. Be very careful of how you dispose of documents, especially bank statements and old credit cards, and invest in a shredder so that you can be sure thieves will not be able to recover any information from your rubbish. Be vigilant when online, and always delete unsolicited emails and never answer requests for personal information either through your inbox or when you are visiting any websites unless you can be sure the request is genuine. Never reveal your personal login information for online accounts (email, banking etc) to anyone, and if you have to write them down encode them and keep them in a safe place. Always cancel old credit card and bank accounts if you do not use them anymore, and keep the closure confirmation from the account provider in a safe place, in case you have to prove in the future you no longer are liable for that account.
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