Securing your identity in Massachusetts: What you can do to Shield Yourself?
It is unknown just how large the dilemma of identity theft is for the everyday American, even though research by the financial community and the government establish that the crime strikes million of US citizens. In accordance with a investigation by the Federal Trade commission over 19 million were victimized by identity theft in 2006.
Only about 1/2 of the people who are victimized by identity theft can identify how it came about, such as by having their billfold stolen. The remaining identity theft situations could be attributed to criminals pilfering electronic data or it could be from criminals stealing information from the garbage. What is obvious is that, with the growing risk of identify theft, citizens need to be watchful and proactively guard themselves or at least reduce the odds of being victimized. There are several steps that Massachusetts consumers can take.
Common tips:
To stay away from identity theft by dumpster diving, shred significant monetary information prior to inserting it in the waste bin or recycling bin. Using a cross cut shredder prevents criminals from piecing together personal information. Shred charge receipts, charge card offers, credit union statements, pay stubs, W2 tax information, or whatever may contain social security numbers.
An additional simple tip is that as a replacement for transporting your social security card around, commit it to memory so that way if your billfold is stolen, your Social Security number won't be taken.
There are a number of habits to defend against mailbox theft. The easiest way is to own a locking mailbox. Don't leave newly arrived correspondence in a mailbox for very long and don't leave any outgoing correspondence in your personal mailbox. The optimal thing to do is to place your correspondence in an official blue postal mailbox or deliver it to the post office.
Also, terminate correspondence delivery if you are planning to be gone or at least have a trustworthy person collect it) and keep in mind that a red flag on your mailbox also alerts criminals that it is vulnerable. Watch for monthly credit union and other financial type statements. Have other significant documents such as new checks delivered to the bank for collection by you and when writing checks, without exception use a heavy, dark ink and fill in ALL of the sections such as payee, amount, date, etc. This makes it hard for a thief to defraud the check.
Account Monitoring Massachusetts
As well as being protective of information, individuals can also secure their identities by judiciously watching their financial records for any unlawful behavior. The easiest bet here is to review monthly statements but also go online and evaluate new transactions. Also, reduce usage of credit cards and use specific cards for certain functions, such as business related travel. In conclusion, protect critical items such as passports, birth certificates, and social security cards by securing them in a safe or safety deposit box.
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Personal Computer Security
To protect against phishing scams, exercize care when opening email from an address you don't recognize and don't ever respond to a inquiry from a organization wanting to confirm your account information via email. The best suggestion is not to open any phishing email as they could have PC viruses associated with them. When you open them, you may subject your self to possible viruses that enables thieves to get hold of more information off of your PC.
Also, make sure your virus checker and firewalls are up-to-date and set the virus checker to an automatic update mode so that you stay current. Also, load an anti-spyware utilities on your PC but make sure that it comes from a justifiable organization for the reason that there are some companies installing spyware on your PC and then advertising utilities to remove their spyware.
Don't forget to make sure you password protect transportable information devices such as laptop, palm pilots, Blackberry's, and cell phones. The information you accumulate on such devices might supply thieves with all that they require to steal your identity.
When it comes to PIN's and passwords, don't utilize the obvious-such as your birth month and year, your phone number or the last four digits of your social security number. As always don't ever store PIN's or passwords in your billfold or purse, or post then near your PC screen.
Another item to reflect is to be very stingy with handing out your email address. Be very protective of your email address as you would be with any other information about yourself. When you give out your email address to enroll in a sweepstakes or free offer, it finds its way into circulation right away. A proposal is to generate a second throw away email address-such as an account from a free email service-for sweepstakes entries or other contests. This way you can save your master email account for company or significant personal matters. Email address can also be mined from chat rooms simply by adding an "@" at the end of a chat room handle and using email on a blog allows your email address to be revealed by Web bots searching for the "@" symbol.
In addition to the above steps, companies need to be more forceful in protecting the identities of its consumers. The difficulty is that even as consumers have power over the information they possess, they don't have power over how information is safeguarded at their job or by their charge companies. Consumers can only do so much and they must do all they know how to.
Despite the efforts of organizations to look out for consumers information by paper shredding and data encryption, hot news stories disclosing probable breaches at organizations like such as Citi-Financial, Bank of America and Time Warner have proven that there is still a lot of work to do. US Government agencies such as the FTC are getting more forceful with corporations to protect consumers through education and enforcement of consumer protection laws. The easiest way to fight identity theft is to make sure that the government is handling it from numerous directions and that it is not simply up to the consumer.
Protect yourself NOW
A surefire way to secure your identity is to enroll with one of our Massachusetts verified preferred vendors listed below;
Lifelock Massachusetts-- Identity theft can happen anywhere to anyone. If your identity is stolen, you can spend hundreds of hours cleaning up your credit and struggling to get back your good name. That's because stolen identities are used up to 30 times, with most victims only discovering the theft after they've been turned down for a loan or contacted by a collection agency. You may already be a victim, many times over, and not even know it. But not with LifeLock, the industry leader in proactive identity theft protection, offers a proven solution that prevents your identity from being stolen before it happens. They will protect your identity and personal information and we guarantee their service up to $1,000,000. They also offer the only identity theft child protection program available in the market, so guarantee your good name today and enroll now.
Identity Truth Massachusetts-- IdentityTruth is the leading provider of a new breed of service to help consumers safeguard their Privacy and Identity. Through innovative technology, individuals receive the earliest possible notification™ in advance of potential misuses of their identities so they can take better control. Early detection is the best protection. They search through billions of data points from many different sources to give you the earliest possible notification in advance of potential misuses of your identity, so you can take better control. To ensure service accuracy, IdentityTruth utilizes highly developed and sophisticated information processing and behavior modeling techniques to not only detect suspicious activities in the past, but to also predict future frauds. Your identity is safe with Identity Truth!
ID Watchdog Massachusetts-- Every month ID Watchdog's patent-pending technology scans thousands of credit, social security, driving and other public records. They search for fraudulent activity and notify you of anything suspicious. PLUS for an added layer of protection they place continuous fraud protection on all your credit records. All of this is backed up by their 100% resolution guarantee: if for any reason you ever become a victim while on ID Watchdog's watch, their team of law enforcement pros will go to work on your behalf to clear all items of identity theft from your personal records. Guaranteed !!
| Q | What should I do if I am deep in debt? |
| A | Whether it is caused by illness, the loss of your job, or simply just over-spending, a
financial crisis of this sort can seem overwhelming, but it often can be overcome. Don't let
your financial situation go from bad to worse.
Realistic budgeting, credit counseling from a good organization, debt consolidation, or bankruptcy, are some of your options. Knowing which one will work best for you depends on how high your debt is, if you can discipline yourself, and your prospects for the future. |