Avoid Identity Theft With Proper Understanding
By now, every adult should know that identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. It has become an epidemic, leaving everyone at risk, including children, adults, the elderly, those with good credit, bad credit, or no credit. And, to make matters worse, most people do not know if their identity has been stolen. The biggest misconception is that identity theft only affects or involves your credit. If you, too, believe that identity theft only affects or involves your credit, then you might want to keep reading.
The best advice for prevention is always keeping safety pointers in mind wherever you go. You may opt to create a wall for privacy and protection by filtering what information to share, when to share it and to whom it can be trusted to. The fact is, you must not trust anyone with fragile information since thieves of identity theft can be anyone close to you.
One of the most effective ways to stop the loss of personal information is to shred all documents with your name or other identifying information on it. Documents you must shred include bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, receipts, utility bills, phone bills, etc. A good rule of thumb is this: if it has your name on it, don’t throw it in the trash – shred it.
Many finance professionals suggest review of credit history every month. This is not required unless you feel that some information is missing. Another decent option is to check every 6 months. This lets you keep the fraud information at bay and at the same time correct the wrong information provided by creditors.
The best way to deal with identity theft is to simply avoid it. This means taking some basic steps. Most of us have been trained to buy things with plastic. If you can, go with cash instead. Most of us can’t, so at least try to use only credit cards. Debit cards have much less protection, so avoid using them with retailers and online like the plague. You are just asking for problems.
There are no good old days like people who have never lived thru that era like to romanticize. Thieves and scam artists have always existed. Yet for countless seniors there was a degree of decorum that is almost foreign to many of us in modern society. In other words the trust factor was lot higher and the cynicism not so widespread. It is hard to break habits like that. And when the scammers start laying on the sugar talk and feign strong personal interest, more than a few elderly people find that an irresistible combination.
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