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19,178 Identity Theft Victims Per Day -

Are You One Of Them?

19,178 Identity Theft Victims Per Day - Are You One Of Them?
by: Andrew Obremski

Identity Theft Statistics Are Shocking. And we are told that it will only become worse, before it gets any better. Are you likely to be affected?

According to recent studies, up to 7,000,000 people become Identity Theft victims each year, in the United States alone. That's over 19,000 cases a day, or 799 cases an hour. Whichever way you look at it, these are shocking figures. And with more and more people using the Internet, online banking, and other hi-tech services, things aren't likely to improve any time soon.

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In fact, another research, a survey conducted on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission recently, tells us that the situation is even worse. According to the FTC survey report, 4.6% of the US population were identity fraud victims last year - that's 10 million people.

According to the FTC figures, if someone fraudulently opens a new credit card or another loan account under your name, on average you can expect the dollar amount to go to about $10,200. That's just an average amount.

To clean up your name, and your credit rating, you will need to deal with this experience. You can expect to spend between $500 and $1,200 of your own hard-earned money cleaning up the mess. You can also expect to invest between 30 and 60 hours of your time.

The above figures are just cold statistics. They say nothing about the emotional trauma, through which you are likely to go when it happens to you. It's all very well to read and hear about bad things that happen to other people. It is quite different when the same thing happens to you, or your loved one.

Is there anything you can do in order to protect yourself? There is. Quite a bit actually. It's all based on common sense and, while there are no guarantees in life, you will minimize the risk and make the life of an identity thief a lot harder.  Identity Theft Prevention Techniques    Computer Identity Theft

Funny thing about thieves. They don't like working hard. If you make it hard enough for them, they will usually go away - to find an easier target.

One of the common-sense things you can do in order to protect yourself, and your family, is to make yourself aware of the current scams that may affect you.

The most infamous one at the moment is so a called 'phishing' scam. In a nutshell it looks like this:

You get an email that looks like it was sent from your bank. They ask you to log in to your online account and verify some of your details. For your convenience, there is a link included right in the email. All you have to do is click on it an log in. Don't ever!

The moment you click on that link and log in, the scam artists have your login ID and password recorded. This will enable them to log in to your account and within hours, or days, your account will be cleaned out!.

There are two common-sense approaches to deal with this.

First, you have to realize that your bank already has all the details they need to operate your online account. If they didn't, you wouldn't be able to open it in the first place. So, you can most likely quite safely delete the email and forget about it.

Secondly, if you have any doubts as to the authenticity of the email, you can get the bank's phone number from your local phone book and give them a call. Tell them about the email you received and ask if they tried to contact you. I bet they are going to be as surprised as you are.

And just remember: Whatever you do, never, ever, log in to your bank account, or any other sensitive account for that matter, right from an email. You already have the login link somewhere in your records. If not, go to the bank's main page and look for an online login page.

Identity Theft Prevention Techniques 

Computer Identity Theft

What we covered today is just one of the things you need to do in order to protect yourself from identity fraud. There are many more. Lack of space doesn't allow me to cover more in this short article. You will find many more tips at http://www.credit-report-a-z.com/articles.html. They are free to implement and could save you lots of time and money.

About The Author


Andrew Obremski is the owner of www.credit-report-a-z.com, a web site devoted to information about credit reports, identity theft, debt, and other personal finance topics.

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Preventing Identity Theft is never foolproof but here are some good tips that will make it more difficult for anyone to steal your personal information.

The first and most important step for preventing identity theft is keeping a close watch on all of your personal information and your credit report.

Check your credit reports from all three bureaus at least once a year. Once you get your credit report check carefully to see that everything is accurate.

If you find an error, dispute it immediately so you can protect yourself from fraud.

Quite often similar names and similar social security numbers get mixed up, or worse, someone could have stolen your identity.

Another good way of preventing identity theft is don't carry your Social Security card or anything with your Social Security number on it in your wallet.

Keeping your social security number private is a critical part of preventing identity theft.

Also, don't keep your bank card pin number in your wallet because it helps a thief who has stolen your wallet help themselves to your cash at an A.T.M.

In this age of computer hacking, preventing identity theft also applies to the Internet.

If you use the Internet, make sure all your security software is up to date and be careful of Internet scams.

Remember, no legitimate business will ever send you an e-mail asking you to confirm your personal identifying information.

Preventing identity theft means you never give out personal information unless you initiated the contact or you're absolutely sure who you're dealing with.

Another good way of preventing identity theft is be especially careful about divulging your credit card number over the phone to telemarketers.

Often the only goal is to obtain your name, address and credit card number.

If you have to give your credit card number over the phone for a hotel or airline reservation, use a regular corded phone as opposed to a cordless or cell phone.

Make sure you report any lost or stolen credit cards immediately for preventing identity theft.

The bottom line is be careful about divulging any personal information about you.

If you use these tips you'll have a much better chance at preventing identity theft before it happens.

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