In the information age, everything rises and falls on your personal data. That’s why identity theft protection services have become so popular in recent years. With the right information, an identity thief can open accounts in your name, rack up all sorts of debt and then take off without you even knowing about it for months. Indeed, with enough information about you, a criminal can use your identity to take out loans, withdraw money from your checking account and do many other things that can completely destroy your credit rating and even your reputation.
Identity theft usually occurs in one of several ways. Knowing what those ways are will help you with the process of identity theft protection:
- “Loose” data. The most common identity theft happens when a company that you have an account with is compromised. You might have a credit card account, for example, whose system has been hacked into. The criminal might not even bother taking your credit card number, but will collect plenty of other identifying information.
- Carelessness. In many cases, we only have ourselves to blame for identity theft. We email our spouse the credit card number and PIN, and then someone gets ahold of those numbers. We carry a list of our entire family’s social security numbers in our wallets. In many ways, identity theft protection is about making smart choices that aren’t always obvious at first.
- Dumpster diving. When you think about identity theft, you either think of the hacker in his parents’ basement breaking into your bank account or you think of someone sorting through your trash. There’s a whole industry based on the idea that someone’s willing to dig through your trash to find stuff – the paper shredder industry. How common this is, of course, isn’t certain.
- Theft. Sometimes, identity theft accompanies regular theft. A burgular might not only steal your television or your pearl necklace, he might also steal personally identifying information and then use that information in an identity theft scheme, as well.
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