Ways Your Information Can Be Obtained for Identity Theft

Anyone can be the victim of identity theft and have his financial information stolen and used for fraudulent purposes. The Consumer Sentinel Network accumulates consumer fraud-related data for the Federal Trade Commission. In 2009, the Consumer Sentinel Network received reports of over 278,000 cases of identity theft in the United States. To protect yourself, you need to understand the ways that information can be obtained for identity theft.

Trash

Your bills and mail from organizations such as the Social Security Administration all have your account numbers, Social Security number, home address and other important personal information on them. If you throw out that mail without shredding it, then a criminal can steal your trash and obtain all of that personal information. If criminals get your Social Security number and home address, then they can also take those pre-approved credit card offers you get in the mail and apply for the card. Use a shredder to destroy any document that has personal information on it.

Change of Address

Unfortunately, it can be easy for a criminal to submit a change of address form to the post office and have your mail delivered to a different location. If you are not receiving mail for more than three consecutive mail days that mail is supposed to be delivered, contact your local post office immediately. Bring photo identification and utility bills addressed to your home to your postmaster and find out if a criminal has re-routed your mail.

Phishing

Phishing is an email tactic criminals use to collect your account login information. The criminals send out random emails that look like they are official emails from a bank or other online business to random victims. In some cases, those victims do not have accounts with those organizations so they ignore the email. But people with accounts may be tempted to click on the login link and try to log into their account. The phishing email login link a goes to a website that looks like the right login page, but is actually a page that collects usernames and passwords for criminals. Never log in to an account from a link in an email. Report all suspicious emails to the company that they are purported to be from.

Purchasing Information

As frustrating as it sounds, you are not always able to initially protect yourself from identity theft. Some criminals are able to purchase your credit card information from store clerks or online websites looking to make extra money, according to the Equifax website. Federal law states that every American consumer is entitled to one free copy of his credit report from each of the three major reporting agencies every 12 months. Order your free reports once a year and look for suspicious activity. You should also monitor your credit card bills for purchases you do not recognize.