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Identity theft, globally, is a rampant social and legal problem that has affected many people. Id theft is that action perpetuated on another individual in which the innocent person’s personal identifiable information is stolen.

Generally, this captured personal information is utilized by the thief to commit fraud by posing as that individual Some of those negative purposes of stealing someone else’s identity can include credit card fraud by applying for new credit card accounts.

Accessing the individual’s financial information and account details using identity fraud has become a major problem since the use of the internet has expanded so rapidly.

The primary reason for identity theft is for monetary gain. Obviously, identity theft is not only of great concern for the individual affected, but by the financial institutions that are deceived by this practice. Therefore identity theft protection is important.

Measures  individuals can take include the monitoring of credit reports, using a paper shredder to detroy information, and adhering to certain safety measures that involve the postal system.

Evidence Eraser is a program that can be downloaded for free that helps eliminate many of these illegal faudelent actions. 

However, if you wish to check your credit report more frequently there is another option open to you. This option   is to commit to a monthly program that will monitor your monthly credit activity which gives you a higher standard of identity theft protection. An alert is sent to you when there is abnormal activity monitored by this service. This service is offered by various credit monitoring services in conjunction with the credit reporting companies and can be activated through a monthly fee.

Shred Documents

An additional measure that can be utilized to prevent ID theft is to properly destroy sensitive personal identifiable information. Often identity theft can be traced back to individuals who search the trash of their potential victims looking for personal data. Some of this personal information can be credit card statements, correspondence that includes social security numbers, credit card offers, etc.

The best way to destroy this information is to utilize a shredder. Two common types of paper shredders are the strip shredders and the cross cut shredder. The cross cut shredder is probably the most effective as it cuts the document in both a horizontal and vertical manner.

Mail Boxes

One additional way that may help to prevent identity theft is by being sensitive to the mail delivery system. Everyday, new credit offers arrive at the consumer’s home. To prevent these offers from falling into the wrong hands there are a number of options.

One option is to secure the mailbox used to receive your daily mail. For further identity theft protection, rather than leaving mail outside the home for pickup from the postal service, it is best to place outgoing mail in an authorized mail box. Also, if the credit card offers are declined it is best shred the credit card offer being so that they will not fall into the hands of identity thieves.

If you want to stop a credit card offer being sent to you on a regular basis then you need to write to the credit card company and request that your name is remove from their mailing list.

There is a website called Scambusters which is dedicated to helping you protect yourself from clever scams both online and offline! There You’ll find lots of great resources on how to avoid the most popular scams,identity theft threats, viruses and urban legends making the rounds.

 

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