- Identity theft is one of the most common crimes in the world.Fingerprint crop image by Andrew Brown from Fotolia.com
According to Spam Laws, a group that focuses on Internet security, up to 10 million United States citizens are victims of identity theft per year. Between 38 and 48 percent of the victims learned about the theft within approximately 3 months, while 9 to 18 percent took 4 years or more to learn about the theft. Identity theft occurs across social economic groups. No one is immune from potential thieves. Being aware of your finances and paying attention to anything slightly suspicious about your accounts is important. - Pay attention to your current accounts. When you receive a bill, go through the purchases listed and verify that you made the purchases. If anything doesn't seem right, investigate. It may be tedious, but catching identity theft early can save you a lot worse problems later. Review your credit history and really pay attention to each entry. Ensure you have each account listed. Make sure your address is correct. If a person has stolen your identity, he could be having credit cards sent to a different location. Also, carefully check past employers. Someone could have a job under your Social Security number. Other clues are receiving a credit card you did not request or getting calls from merchants regarding products you aren't looking at or didn't buy.
- You may start receiving calls from collection agents about a past due bill. This means that someone has used your identity and made purchases that obviously she did not pay for. You are then left owing the bill and then proving that it wasn't you who made the purchase. Receiving this type of call may be difficult if you have your own credit issues. You may avoid the calls, thinking that it is your past due bill the agency is calling about. Answer the call and take down specific information about the debt, where it originated, where the billing address is listed and when the transactions took place.
- Look for unusual entries on your credit report. The three credit reporting bureaus -- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion -- are required by law to provide one free credit report a year if you make the request. In certain cases such as identity theft or if you were turned down for a loan, you can make more frequent requests. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com, the government-authorized source to obtain your free report. You may need to monitor your credit history for a year or more to ensure no new theft is occurring. The Federal Trade Commission also has resources for handling identity theft issues.
- You may receive an email from a company that you do business with such as your bank. The email asks that you verify your account information -- a scam called phishing and a sign of potential identity theft. When you click on the link through your email account, you will go to a page that looks like the business. If you have ever clicked the link and provided personal information, you are the victim of identity theft. Legitimate businesses do not request account information via email.
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