The Ins And Outs Of Identity Theft And How to Prevent It And Fix It

 

What Is Identity Theft?

Imagine you are applying for a home loan for your very first home. You are beyond excited as you are about to take a huge step forward to living the American Dream and becoming established. You apply for the loan and are promptly denied. You are devastated. You have spent years carefully budgeting and paying your bills on time, how could this happen to you? Turns out, you could be a victim of identity theft and someone else has been using your name and information to purchase things and it is now destroying your chance at buying a home. That is the harsh reality of identity theft. Someone could be using your information and racking up credit debt or unpaid bills for years in your name, without you having any idea. 

Identity theft is when someone steals your personal information and uses that information without your permission. This information can be: your name and address, credit card, bank account numbers, social security number, or medical insurance account numbers. Basically, identity theft is when someone steals the information that can identify you as a person legally. You are held responsible for whatever bills are unpaid or credit cards are opened up, and arrests can even happen to you for crimes that the identity thief committed with your name. Identity theft is a very serious crime with huge repercussions for the victim that can affect you for years, since you are held responsible for any bills the criminal has in your name, even if you are unaware of it. 

Unfortunately, in our world of technology, identity theft is quickly becoming more and more popular as personal information is required for every facet of our online life. We put our personal information online for everything from creating a Facebook account, to shopping on Amazon, or even syncing to our Google accounts, and letting it remember and autofill passwords and bank information, so we don’t have to remember all our pesky passwords and account information. While this seems to make our lives easier at the time, having all of our personal information readily available at the tip of our fingertips, or someone else’s fingertips should they hack into your account, can be very dangerous and a huge security risk. 

What Are The Different Types Of Identity Theft?

You can’t fix the mess that an identity thief has put you in until you know what type of identity theft you are dealing with. There are many different types of personal information can be stolen by someone pretending to be you. Some of the most common forms are financial identity theft, insurance and medical identity theft, criminal identity theft, driver’s license identity theft, social security identity theft, synthetic identity theft, and child identity theft.

Financial identity theft is typically when your credit or bank account information is stolen. Criminals unbeknownst to you make fraudulent purchases in your name and sink your credit score. You are the one held responsible for their shopping sprees since it is in your name, unless if you can clear it and prove you did not make the purchases. Insurance and medical identity theft are newer forms of theft where the victim is in charge of paying enormous medical bills and expenses that are in their name. Criminal identity theft is where you get pulled over for a minor infraction like speeding or running a red light, and when the cop pulls up your record, there is a warrant out for your arrest for dealing drugs or trafficking near the border when you were very clearly on the other side of the country working at your 9-5 job. You can get arrested for a crime you did not commit. Driver’s license identity theft is pretty self-explanatory. It is when your purse or wallet gets stolen and someone goes around pretending to be you. Social security identity theft is typically used when people want to avoid paying their taxes so they file their taxes in your name and with your social security number. Eventually, the IRS catches on that taxes are being withheld and not paid and you are the one that gets slapped with a huge bill and giant fines. Synthetic identity theft is where a criminal uses a mix of fake and real information to create a completely new identity and start a new life.

And, lastly, child identity theft is where someone steals a child’s information, like their social security number, and uses it to open credit accounts and apply for loans. Since the victims of this particular brand of identity theft are children, it makes it even harder to trace since the child will not be concerned with their credit score and personal information for many years down the line. Child identity theft is not only serious because it is a crime like the other forms of identity theft, but it is also serious because it is rarely discovered until years down the line when the child is grown and needs to use their personal information and credit for a car loan or student loan, and are denied due to low credit. By the time the child is an adult, the damage has already been done. Unfortunately, it is usually a family member or close friend that is the perpetrator of child identity crime since they are close to the child and have access to their information that is not readily available online the way that an adult’s information could be. That is why it is so crucial to be vigilant and on guard with who and where you give out your personal information to, since you never know when it can be taken advantage of.

And sometimes it will not even be from you personally that your information is stolen, but from a company that you do business with. The top five companies that have had data breaches occur where people’s personal information was stolen are Yahoo, First American Financial Corp., Facebook, Marriott International, and Friend Finder Networks. The range of affected people to date is 3 billion during the 2013 Yahoo data breach to 412.2 million affected by the Friend Finder Networks data breach in 2016. Yes, you read that right. 3 billion people were affected by Yahoo’s data breach in 2013, with their personal information being stolen and used by criminals.

How Can I Know If My Identity Has Been Stolen And Why Should I Care?

An identity thief can gain access to your personal information either in person, by stealing your wallet or going through your trash or mail, or, more commonly, they will steal it online. You need to stay constantly vigilant so you do not fall victim to identity fraud and if you do, you can see the warning signs and discover it right away and report it. You can tell if someone steals your identity by reading your bills and watching your bank account statement to see if there are any charges you don’t recognize. You should also keep track of and check your mail, both physical and email, to see if you stop getting an expected bill, or the other extreme, start getting a bill you know nothing about and were not expecting. Also, consistently checking your credit report to make sure you recognize all of the charges on it will help you to quickly recognize any problems or cases of stolen identity should they occur. 

If an identity thief has been using your information it will lower your credit score and you will have bills that are due in your name. When business look at your credit score and discover tons of charges under your name and a low score as a result, even if it wasn’t you, it can prevent you from making basic purchases such as getting a cell phone, renting or buying a home, getting utilities, getting a credit card, or even getting some types of jobs. If you discover charges on your account that seem fishy, then you need to nip it in the bud and report the fraudulent expenses right away, to prevent any more damage being done to your identity.   

How Can I Report Identity Theft?

“Houston, we have a problem.” As soon as you suspect that you are a victim of identity theft you need to report it to stop the thief in their tracks and gain your identity back. Being the victim of identity theft can make you feel violated, like a part of you was stolen. Which in fact, it was. 

The first step when you suspect that you are a victim of identity theft is to determine what type of information was lost or stolen. Was it your social security number, login or password, debit or credit card, bank account information, or driver’s license information that was stolen? Once you have figured out what kind of identity theft occurred you can report it and get help. 

IdentityTheft.gov is an excellent one-stop resource provided for identity theft victims. It gives you specific advice depending on your situation and the type of identity theft. You will then receive an identity theft report and have a recovery plan created specifically for you. For example, if your social security number has been stolen, they suggest that you get your free credit report from one of the top three credit bureaus through annualcreditreport.com to identify any accounts or charges that you did not make. File your taxes early, to prevent a scammer from doing so using your name. Always respond right away to any letters from the IRS so it can be taken care of right away. 

If your online login or password was stolen, change your password right away and if possible, also change the username. If the site will not allow you to log in, contact the company and have them walk you through how to recover or shut down your account. If you used that password or username anywhere else, you should change them on the other sites as well, since it is very likely that the hacker will attempt to use your same personal information to log into other sites as well.

If your debit card information was stolen, immediately contact your bank and have them freeze the current card to prevent any future charges, and request a new card. If you have any fraudulent charges on your account, call the fraud department and they will remove them for you. 

If you suspect that your credit card information has been stolen then place a credit freeze, or at the very least place a fraud alert on your account. A credit freeze essentially freezes your credit and restricts access to your credit report, making it much more difficult for an identity thief to access your credit report and open new lines of credit in your name. A fraud alert allows creditors to obtain a copy of your credit report as long as they verify your identity first, to ensure it is you opening a new line of credit and not an identity thief.

If your driver’s license information was lost or stolen, reach out to your local DMV to report it so they can flag your license number in case anyone attempts to use it. They may have you apply for a duplicate driver’s license.

For any type of identity theft, you may want to report it to the police station as well. They will then be able to put out an alert for anyone using your name that comes in contact with the police. Providing a police report of the identity theft that occurred is also required by some companies as you are attempting to clear your name or any fraudulent charges.

How Can I Prevent Identity Theft And Protect Myself?

One of the ways we can easily prevent identity theft is by changing our passwords frequently. Many, many people recycle the same 2-3 passwords for all of their accounts, including using the same password for their social media accounts, which are notoriously easy to hack, as their bank accounts. Chances are if an identity thief can hack your social media account the next stop will be attempting to use the same password and username for your bank account. 

Another tip to prevent identity theft is to avoid using a basic password that is easily guessed, like “123456” or “password”. From 2011 to 2018, SplashData has analyzed the top 25 most used passwords and “123456” and “password” have been at the top of the list for the past seven years. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) compiled a list of the top 20 most used passwords in 2019 and “123456” is right at the top of the list with 23.2 million people using that password, and “password” coming in as the 4th most used password with 3.6 million people using that particular password.

So, if you are using “123456” or “password”, or any variation of these passwords, as the password to protect your personal information and bank account, stop right now. Change your password right away to something more secure. Congratulations, you have just taken a huge step in preventing identity theft in your life. 

Changing your passwords frequently is taking huge steps to prevent a criminal from hacking your account and stealing your identity. You can also go a step further and protect yourself from physical identity theft as well. You can do this by promptly checking your mailbox and not letting mail with sensitive information sit in your mailbox for days. You can also buy a shredder and shred any documents, bills, or receipts that have your personal information on them, to prevent any dumpster diver from stealing your information that way. 

What Is Identity Theft Insurance?

Identity theft insurance is just like any other type of car or home or medical insurance. Identity theft insurance is a monthly bill designed to protect you in the event of an emergency and helps reimburse you for some of the costs you incur when you are a victim of identity theft. Some of those costs can range from phone bills to legal help as you are trying to recover your personal information and identity. Just like any other type of insurance it does not prevent an emergency, but you are sure glad for the monthly bill you have been paying for insurance when it pays off in an emergency and they help you save money in the long run. You will want to see if it is already included in your homeowners or renter’s insurance policy and if not, consider paying for identity theft insurance. One such reputable identity theft insurance company is Norton LifeLock with prices ranging from $10 to $35 a month, which could save you massive headaches in the future should your identity ever be stolen.

There are many ways that you can protect your identity, both free and otherwise. Most of the ways you can protect yourself from identity theft are simple and take only a few minutes, such as changing your passwords often and not leaving your wallet or other personal information where anyone can find it, both physically or online. But most importantly, you can protect yourself by staying ever vigilant with your personal information and if you ever see anything strange, don’t be afraid to report it right away. It could save you from becoming a victim of identity theft.