How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

Crimes involving people without their consent or understanding of how they were involved have been on the rise. Some of these crimes have risen from technological advancements and the invention of new ways of committing crimes through impersonation. Technological developments in the world have helped make our lives easier. Technology has made man’s world smaller allowing social activities and betterment of the efficiency of product and service delivery. However,technology has given rise to crimes that can disrupt one’s finance, reputation, time and moneyand credit history. Identity theft is one of the most common crimes that has resulted from the advancement in the social platforms and financial technological advancements.A victim of identity theft faces difficulties in conducting financial transactions as identity theft has a direct impact on personal finances (Hoar, 2001). This makes it difficult to acquire loans, credit cards, and mortgage as the victim’sfinancial reputation is ruined. Thereis, therefore,the need to enlighten on theft identity on the severity of the crime, the causes, how to prevent identity theft and how to handle cases of identity theft. 

The deliberate usage of an individual’s identification for activities while impersonating someone in activities for crimes such as financial fraud and telecommunication crimes or other favours and benefitswithout their consentis known as identity theft. Financial gains involved include the purchase of services and goods through credit, acquisition of loans and, money laundering. Other activities through false identity result in losses to the victim who may at times suffer consequences from other criminal activities. Such activities that the perpetrator of the identity theft engages in include entry and exit on countries illegally, drug trafficking, smuggling of items and illegal substances, and activities that involve cybercrimes.The cases of identity theft continue to increase asfraudsters invent more methods of collecting information that will be used for the identity theft process of individuals who will become victims of the crime. 

Fraudsters have different ways of acquiring potential victims’personal information that is used in identity theft. Personal information that is used in identity theft includes personal details such as age, full names, identification numbers, financial account numbers , passwords, family details, financial reports, account balances and financial capability in credit services and loan acquirement capability (Solove, 2002).The channels used to steal such information categorize the methods into either online and offline. 

The offline methods of stealing information do not involve the use of computers. The fraudsters thus acquire an individual’s information through the collection of receipt of financial transactions, stealing of purse, wallets, and credit cards. Fraudsters also obtain information from unsuspecting friends and relatives, corrupt employees and, and stealing from companies that have personal individual and from garbage. 

Online channel methods involve the use of computers to obtain access to personal information for malicious uses. This method used by fraudsters involve phishing and pharming. Phishing involves attempts of tricking someone into giving personal information over the internet by sending of spoof emails that allow another individual to steal money from the victim (Jakobson, 2006).Pharming involves the diversion of one to another website from the one intended a person intended to visit. The individual thus feeds information to the fake website of fraudsters who then acquire the information and use it in identity theft. Viruses and spyware have also been used to collect information from personal and work computers on individuals once installed in these computers. The information collected from these computers are later on used for identity theft hence, workers and more people become victims of identity theft. 

Individuals, therefore, have the responsibility of protecting their information to avoid being victims of identity theft cases. People can protect their personal information through various methods and precautions. Personal computers and computers used should havean antivirus, anti-spyware programs that are efficient and up-to-date to prevent any malicious programs and viruses that may be used for unauthorised collection of personal information. 

All personal and transaction documents such as medical and financial documents need to be shredded before disposal to avoid access to such documents by fraudsters. One should not respond to mails and texts, and phone messages that are unfamiliar and that ask for personal information. This is one of the most common ways used by fraudsters to obtainpersonal information. 

Passwords for accounts that have personal information should have strong passwords that mix numbers and special characters and one password should not be used on all accounts. The passwords should be private and one should not share them with other people as such accounts have personal information that will be used in identity theft (Bilge, 2009). People should use websites that offer encryption when partaking in financial transactions that are online such as online shopping and banking. Encryption denies access to unauthorized access if tapped over the network and only trusted recipients with the decryption software can acquire the information minimising the risks of fraudsters getting personal information.Information over public wireless networks should be full encrypted to avoid unauthorised access. Fraudsters at times tap into the wireless networks that are public and failure to full encryption will lead to the unauthorised access of such information. 

Identity theft is a crime whose consequences become more severe if not recognised early. There is, therefore, the need to be attentive to reduce the consequences from identity theft by pointing out a case of identity theft early and taking the right measures to counter the case.There are signs that suggest possible cases of identity theft that a victim can detect to avoid further use of their personal information in criminal activities. One of the most common red flags that indicate identity theft is mistakes in financial account statements, bank accounts, and credit cards. Most cases of identity are geared towards financial uses and favours of the victim’s money and mistakes in the accounts and credit cards suggest possible identity theft as fraudsters use these financial capabilities at their disposal. The resulting account statements thus conflict with those of the victim’s records suggesting the involvement of another person in transactions, a possibility in identity thefts. 

The emergence of bills and collection notices appear even though the victim did not order or receive any of the products listed or services. At times, this is considered as a mistake by the one who delivers such bills and collection notices. However on the frequent emergence of such documents should raise an alarm of personal information use in such purchases and should prompt follow-up to determine the cause of such bills for unordered goods and services. Calls from debt collection departments of stores also are made to the victimon debts that the victim did not make.This is an indication of expenditure without the victims consent suggesting possible identity theft. The regularity of the bill and account statements are also altered as the identity thief meddles with their delivery as they at times receive the bills and statements while impersonating the victim. 

Other minor red flags include unexpected load and job turndowns even when the financial ability allows for the loan. Check turndowns by businesses also suggest a possible violation of financial agreements and reputation without the victim’s consent. This is as a result of identity theft and the fraudster engaging in activities that lead to the break of financial reputation or criminal crime linkage to the victim breakdown thus the resulting cases of a check, job and loan denials. 

Calls, emails and texts from accounts using family members names and details for positions for jobs or accounts such as child’s minor name suggest identity\ theft and use of personal information. 

On identification of identity theft and fraud, the victim has the task of correcting the information and restoration of the reputation of their names. This takes a longer time compared to the period at which the reputation of the victim was ruined. 

The first step in the identity theft recovery id to put a fraud alert on all the credit cards a person has. The victim should also put a security freeze on all credit reports which preventall creditors from acquiring credit card reports as new applications are denied access to information (Saunder, 1999).The second step involvesis to contact all the businesses and institutions affected directly by the identity theft case. This involves the reporting to the institutions whose information card has been stolen from you, for example, credit cash issuer should be notified of the theft of a credit card. 

The victim should then contact the Federal Trade Commission and file the Identity Theft Report. The commission then provides the way forward based on the fraud type committed. The victim then files a police report so as to complete the Identity Theft Reportwhich will grant the victim the ability to collaborate with affected companies and investigators in finding the identity thief. The last step is to contact the Social Security Administration for the protection of the social security number and if it was compromised. Following theses steps enables one to control the damage done and recover from the identity theft gradually without any further consequences due to impersonation when crimes are committed. Identity theft is thus a realistic and serious issue in our society and we should all be attentive to avoid such cases and offer help in eradicating this menace. 

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