Criminals are increasingly creative in the methods by which they steal your identity, your money, and your life. They are usually several steps ahead of the average consumer. With how many of the following "creative" schemes are you familiar:
Although many people think this fact should be obvious, the reality is that many people are simply not smart when it comes to handling their personal information, and who they willingly give that information to. This carelessness creates a virtual field day for identity theft opportunities to create havoc for such people. The really sad thing is that the safeguards required are common sense and protection can be had at a very lost cost.
One of the methods that criminal get your personal information is through your mail, this can either be through stealing mail out of your mailbox, or from the trash (known as dumpster diving). This personal information can then be used to open accounts in your name, open credit cards in your name and a number of other uses that fall under the scope of identity theft. In this article we examine how you can fight identity theft by protecting your mail from mailbox theft and dumpster diving.
Everyone at one time or another has either joked about or heard a joke about “Dumpster Diving.” Usually it refers to someone scavenging for food or behind a store to see what they have thrown out. And everyone has heard of someone finding something of real value in the trash. Personally I’ve seen someone on the Antique Road Show showing off a painting they found this way, only to be told it’s worth some extraordinary amount of money.
Globally credit card fraud costs card issuers billions of dollars a year in fraudulent use of their cards. Some of this loss is passed back to retailers who failed to comply with the normal processing method for the card. Another part of the loss is insured. Nonetheless, as a cardholder you are potentially liable for any fraudulent use of your credit card. It is, therefore, imperative that you make yourself aware of what the current fraud scams are and how you can help to in the battle of credit card fraud prevention.
Social Networking sites provide a fantastic resource for people to meet new people and make new friends. From the comfort of their homes people can meet others from around the world, spending time chatting about an infinite variety of subjects and sharing photos, music, videos and more. In this virtual world it doesn't matter what people look like as many people use cartoon characters or artistic pictures in their profile. This gives many people the confidence to spend time with a huge variety of people from various backgrounds and diverse values and beliefs.
Social networking online is a relatively new and very popular way for people to meet for pleasure and business purposes. It's taken off in a big way with sites like YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook etc.
In today's technologically advanced world more and more people are falling victim to identity theft both online and offline. It was reported by a general accounting office that over 700,000 Americans have their identity stolen every year and that number is expected to rise over time. While many thieves operate online there are still many "dumpster divers" who go through people's trash cans looking for a credit card statement or a solicitation that someone forgot to tear up. You may be thinking that people don't do this stuff but there are people who spend a lot of time waiting on someone to forget to shred a piece of their personal information so they can take it and start running up your credit cards and using your social security number. It may be impossible to stop someone from stealing your identity entirely, but there are things that you can do to lower the risk of having it happen.
In today's technologically advanced world more and more people are falling victim to identity theft both online and offline. It was reported by a general accounting office that over 700,000 Americans have their identity stolen every year and that number is expected to rise over time. While many thieves operate online there are still many "dumpster divers" who go through people's trash cans looking for a credit card statement or a solicitation that someone forgot to tear up. You may be thinking that people don't do this stuff but there are people who spend a lot of time waiting on someone to forget to shred a piece of their personal information so they can take it and start running up your credit cards and using your social security number. It may be impossible to stop someone from stealing your identity entirely, but there are things that you can do to lower the risk of having it happen.
The law specifies that parents must apply for a social security number for each child. Once a social security number is applied to your child, we immediately begin years and years of filling in forms with this magical number on it. From signing children up with a new pediatrician, to getting health insurance, to registering them for sports programs, it seems as though everyone wants personal information.
