In this age of increasing technology, one crime that has increased exponentially in our society is identity theft. Identity theft occurs when one person steals and intentionally misuses the personal, financial data of another person for their own personal gain. Thieves will usually charge large amounts of debt or commit crimes in another persons name, causing problems that can take years to fix.

This new wave of crime can be nerve-wracking. You can become paranoid worrying about the ways identity thieves have figured out to steal your information. But there are several things you can do to protect yourself. One of the simplest and most important is to look at your credit score from the credit bureaus on a regular basis.

Under a new law that has recently been enacted, the three main credit bureaus must allow me to check my credit score for free at a minimum of once per year. They also will allow you to check your credit score ratings, but often at a nominal fee. Your credit report will allow you to see all accounts that have been opened in your name. If anything looks amiss, you are allowed to dispute these findings at no extra charge to you.

Checking your credit report with the credit bureaus is a great first step, but there are also several other steps that can be taken to increase your protection. Be sure to thoroughly shred all important documents before they are to be thrown out. There have been several reports of identity thieves searching through a potential victim’s trash for pertinent information.

Another way to protect yourself from identity theft is to carry as little identification around with you as possible. It is especially important to safeguard your social security number so never carry your social security with you. It would be best left locked in a fireproof safe in your home. If your wallet or purse is ever stolen, the less information thieves can obtain the better.

Lastly, be sure to keep a record of all account numbers of your credit cards and banking information along with the direct telephone numbers to your financial institutions. This can help to speed along the process of reporting a crime and can help prevent thieves from doing major damage to your credit.

With improved technology, identity theft, or the misuse of individual’s identification for another’s gain, has become more prevalent. However, there are ways to protect oneself. Most importantly, I can contact the three main credit bureaus for free once yearly to check my credit score. I can also view my credit score ratings for an extra fee. Additionally, I can shred documents before discarding, keep my social security card at home and maintain records of all my credit cards and banking information in case my wallet is ever stolen and I need to contact these institutions as soon as possible.

- Daniel Lesser

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 9:08 am and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.