Are You Helping To Take Your Own Personal Identity?
Last year close to 8 million people in the U.S. were the victims of identity theft. Surprisingly this is very good news considering that in 2009 the number was well over 11 million. That’s a twenty eight percent decrease.
Lots of this is due to many banking institutions along with national and city government agencies aggressively tracking and apprehending identity thieves. In addition there is a concerted push on a wide scale to teach individuals on the hazards of identity fraud and what measures they can implement to protect themselves. In many instances consumers are taking it to heart no matter if it’s purchasing some sort of fraud insurance or being more vigilant when it comes to guarding their private information.
But there is an area in which individuals are willingly reckless in sharing their private data. It is not that they have an overwhelming desire to have their identity stolen. It’s just the nature as well as the arena they are communicating in.
Social networks have skyrocketed with countless online users logging in daily to talk about whatever is on their minds. At the same time they’re being quite careless with regards to sharing their private information. Something as trivial as giving out your date of birth or telephone number is an invitation to identity thieves.
The truth is all con artist need to do is get a hold of your photo and with the information you have provided create bogus financial accounts.
Unfortunately this recklessness also extends to our phones. There was a time when a phone was just that. But now thank to all the innovations it has become a whole lot more. In the process it has made many of us susceptible to identity fraud.
A lot of people have no safety mechanism on their cellphone while other people store a myriad of personal data without any access code protection to deter somebody that may get a hold of it.
If you are planning to be on line doing some socializing then be very aware of the privacy settings you have put in place and also depending on the circumstances be prepared to modify them when necessary. Also you can socialize quite extensively without giving anyone your birth date or phone number. Be leery of anyone that you may have put on your list that is way too eager to get a hold of this info.
As to the cell, be sure you lock it up by equipping it with some sort of password protection. You might consider this as an inconvenience that you have to basically log in every time you use it however if you intend to save any personal data on it then it’s an inconvenience that is worth it.
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