Just like any other type of crime, identity theft comes in all shapes and sizes. Cyber criminals have a variety of ways to gain access to your personal information, your finances, and your identity. We’ve long understood the importance of keeping our homes and other valuables under lock and key, the same should be true when we’re protecting our personal identity.
To find the right identity theft protection we need to learn the common practices these criminals use so that we can be better equipped to defend ourselves from the tricks that fraudsters use to get into our lives.
The Best Answer Is: No Answer
We need to always be on our guard when we are contacted by outside sources with requests for our personal information. Whenever you are contacted either through email, telephone, or text messages you can never be sure where the contact was generated from. Identity thieves are extremely good liars and will tell you anything to convince you that they’re from a trustworthy source. Anytime someone contacts you and asks you to verify your username, password, social security number, bank account information, PIN, credit card numbers, your mother’s maiden name, or your birthday, the best answer is a no answer. If you’re concerned about identity theft protection, it is best if you do not respond in any way.
Never Enter Your Password If You’ve Followed a Link in an Email
You also want to give thought to how you arrive at certain sites. Even if you believe that the site is trustworthy, if you land on a page through a link from an email or chat line don’t enter your password or any other information into the site. It may appear to be legitimate, but fraudsters are very good at copying the pages of authentic corporations in order to deceive you into inputting your private information. It is always better to go directly to the site by typing in the URL directly. If you’re really concerned about identity theft protection, always remember that criminals are skilled at deception. They don’t follow the rules so don’t expect them to.
Don’t Share Your Information with Anyone
Never share private information with anyone, even your closest friends. This is especially true when it comes to your passwords. Your passwords and PINS are the key to opening up your accounts and services online and in machines all over the city. You should always be cautious about giving your keys to anyone. As a general rule, corporations you do business with will never ask for your PIN or password under any circumstances, so if you receive an email, text message, or request of any kind asking you to provide these access codes it is safe to assume that you are being targeted for some type of identity theft.
Even when you’re sharing information with those who are close to you, it is important to exercise extreme caution. Every time you provide your private information with another person you increase your level of exposure that someone could misuse it. You will have to trust that the other individual will care just as much about keeping it secure as you would. Identity theft is a crime that will continue to grow as long as people are unaware and unprepared for it. Perhaps, with the use of a service like Identity Guard would be much easier for.