Identity theft continues to become one of the most threatening crimes in that it puts anyone at risk, it is hard to detect (we’re talking about years for most cases to be resolved or traced) and its damage spans not only the financial status of the victims but their future and, at times, their lives as well.  Yes, identity theft can literally kill you.  Alterations in your medical records are the basis for this bold statement.

This is why it is so important that you take every step that you can in order to protect yourself from identity theft. Identity theft prevention is neither a laughing matter nor is it something you can easily dismiss as thousands are after your information for financial gains or for much larger crimes like human trafficking.  Even your kids are not safe. So how do you safeguard yourself then?

One of the most important identity theft prevention steps you can take is to take the time to get informed.  You would need to invest time in knowing which of your personal information are at risk for an identity theft to ensue, how these personal information can reach malicious hands and what and how these malicious hands of thieves can do to these information.

Don’t downplay this step because it would really take much of your time to research as much as you can about identity theft but it will definitely be a subject worth investing time on.  You could lose your savings, your good credit rating, your wealth and even your reputation if you do not protect yourself.  True identity theft prevention do not just happen when you’ve a list of what and what not to do (although that in and of itself is useful enough), instead it happens when you know every little detail about identity theft that you are able to even come up with your own set of prevention steps.

Some of the measures we can take to prevent identity theft take so little effort that we would more often than not overlook them. These include the following:

1. Making sure that you receive your bank, billing and other financial statements that contain your name, address, account numbers and other important financial and personal information on time. If you missed a statement, make sure you get in touch with the proper institution immediately so you can pinpoint discrepancies (such as unauthorized change of your mailing address) and stop an identity thief on its tracks.

2. Always shred out withdrawal/deposit slips, checks, pay stubs, bills, tax refunds and whatnot before throwing them away. Dumpster diving has continually been the avenue for ill-intentioned individuals to get to your private and financial information.

3. Do not leave your checkbook and other financial documents lying around for others to see; be it in your house or in your office or even while you are on vacation. A large percentage of identity theft cases are reportedly carried out by individuals the victims know or are related to.

4. When in public and you have to give out your personal and financial information, be wary of onlookers and people who may be in earshot. For instance, make sure your fill out forms where no one can and is looking over your shoulder, wait until you are out of earshot before you make important financial transactions over the phone. This is if you have to. Otherwise, person-to-person transactions are always best.

5. Do not give out your personal and financial information over the phone unless you know the person. Also, as the USDOJ puts it, adopt a “need to know” approach on all your transactions, phone, online or otherwise. This means that if your bank calls, for example, you don’t need to give out information that they should already have a record of.

As a rule of thumb, if a piece of information is needed to make a transaction of any kind, you need to safeguard it. Identity theft prevention is always better than cleaning up the damage identity thieves can and will do.

If you think you’re safe, think again. The Federal Trade Commission reports that in a minute, 19 people become new victims of identity theft or fraud and out of all the reported cases, 50% are caused by people the victims know like their relatives, friends, neighbors or acquaintances. Contrary to popular belief, only 11.6% of these cases are caused by phishing, internet fraud or similar computer crimes. Children, college students and just about anyone can fall prey to identity fraud. The worst part it takes months to find out if an identity has been stolen and years, if not forever, to recover from the damages.

Every imaginable, and even unthinkable, ways of getting to your Social Security Numbers and other personal information has pretty much been done in the millions of internet fraud cases reported. These include having people you may or may not know go through your trash (physical and cyber), redirect your bills and having strangers pose as bank or government representatives just to get to your personal details.

Being careful with your transactions is one step to making sure no one misuses your identity. Small tasks like shredding personal documents, bills or information you’re throwing away or not leaving your mail, checkbooks, bank statements and bills, to name a few, lying around can make a difference in keeping your identity safe.

If you’re a busy person, identity monitoring services provided by a reliable company that can guard, monitor and detect activities in your accounts is actually something worth considering. Some companies can provide both identity fraud protection and insurance for you and your family and include conveniences like providing a hotline for you to call in case of a stolen wallet and helping you cancel and replace lost contents of your wallet, informing you of any application (credit or services) in your name and monitoring known and new sites designed to illegally sell or trade personal information.

Among the various forms of identity theft online is online bank fraud. I find online banking convenient for both my personal and small business transactions. Unfortunately, most victims of online bank fraud are small-scale enterprises. This risk has made me look for ways to protect myself. I’ve found some great free advice online.

To commit bank fraud online, cyber criminals like hacking into the lenient systems of small enterprises through phishing so be wary of unsolicited emails and unknown websites. (This is also a great preventive measure from identity theft online in general.) If possible use a different computer that’s exclusively for banking transactions only – no emails, surfing or other unrelated activities.

Online bank fraud can also be prevented by choosing a bank that has protective measures in place. Your bank should be able to provide you with services that include monitoring and reporting unusual activities to your account, setting limits to your cash disbursements in a day and setting restrictions on adding payees.

There are plenty of services these days that provide comprehensive protection from various forms of identity theft online. These services cover credit card protection, firewall and cyber monitoring (which help prevent online bank fraud too). Some even provide insurance coverage so make sure you scout for the best one.

The ruse had the agents posing as buyers who intended to use the false documents to obtain loans in other people names. It was also learned during the investigation that the identity theft ring worked with a hacker who had provided them with some 2,700 ATM codes and matching passwords and that they had been using to access and drain accounts.

NY Grand Jury Indicts Five in Identity Theft Plot

A federal grand jury out of Buffalo New York has handed down a four count indictment charging five people with conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Charged were Rungen Huang, Jia Ming Huang, Chang Keng Zheng, Zhen Qiang Liang and Siu S Cheng. All of them lived in Florida and New York.

The groups method of operation was to obtain stolen credit card and debit account numbers then use that information to manufacture counterfeit debit and credit cards. It was determined through the course of the investigation that over a six month period running between last July and December, the group had drained accounts of some $510,000 using ATM machines in area casinos.

Using Romance as a Ruse

The more straight forward of these hustles involves simply meeting people online, meeting them in person and then when the opportunity presents itself gathering up their personal information or even their credit cards. Romance hustlers like this will often even work in pairs. One will distract while the other does the thieving.

Here is One of the Most Common Scams

While that’s the most straight forward ploy, its not the most common. The most encountered identity theft con game that’s ran in dating chat-rooms in fact doesn’t even involve taking your ID. It revolves around convincing you to receive, sign for and then re-ship goods that have been purchased with stolen credit cards.

One of the Most Surprising Identity Protection Tips

You see the big problem that identity thieves commonly face, is buying and receiving goods. Buying them online is the easy part but the risk comes into play when it comes time to receive and sign for them. So how to do it without being seen or leaving a trail? The answer to that is one of the most surprising identity protection tips it turns out.

Receiving and Reshipping for a Friend

The all to common method is for an overseas con artist to cultivate an online chat-room relationship with someone in the U.S. The next step is to convince the person to take delivery of goods then reship them. They will usually claim that there are some problems related to tariffs and that’s why they need to be reshipped without the receipt.

Love Truly is Blind Online

In fact in one recent police operation, the investigation trail led to a man in his 60s who thought he had an attractive 20-something year old girlfriend in Spain, who he was shipping to. He had taken delivery of goods worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and had even been duped out of $48,000 of his own money that he had spent on shipping charges for his fake girlfriend.

There was a time, a handful of decades back when protecting yourself from identity theft was something that you really didn’t have to give much thought to. Well times have sure changed and the number one factor that can be blamed for the increase of this crime is the Internet.

Back in the good old days, a crook who was intent on assuming someone else’s identity, for the most part had to actually physically get their hands on a persons vital documents. That alone made things quite a bit more difficult. In those days mail boxes were a prime source of ill gotten information.

Similarly on the same note; once a person did go through the steps to highjack someones ID and establish lines of credit, the overall risk factor was higher as well. Back then all too often to use the fraudulently obtained credit, they had to show their face.

Times sure have changed. Because now your private information can be stolen and offered up for sale online with the simple click of a computer mouse. Then when it’s time to make purchases and trash your credit, more often than not it’s a foreign national operating in some far flung country.

In fact with so many people out to get their hands on it. Criminals who have so many uses for it. Once your identity is stolen, you’re stuck having to deal with the consequences for the rest of your life. It will be passed around back and forth for decades, as each crook tries their best to find some new nefarious use for it.

So there is much that you can do in your home and your local area when it comes to protecting your identity but for the most part, the bigger job is to be done online. For instance identity protection services now employ specialists who’s job it is to interact with online stolen identity marketers in search of their clients personal information.

• Who Better to Ask?

The one big problem that you most likely have if you want to protect yourself from identity theft, is that you don’t think like thief. You see stealing and abusing an identity fraudsters personal information would be an extremely difficult task. They no doubt would have all their bases covered.

A Thief Knows How To Protect Yourself From Identity Theft

So then who do you suppose are the best people to talk to if you want to protect yourself from identity theft? That’s right! You guessed it. The best people who would know what thieves are looking for, is thieves themselves. So then what are convicted identity fraudsters saying today?

Identity Thieves are Prowling Parking Garages

They’re saying to never leave your purse, wallet, checkbook or credit card receipts in your car. You would be amazed at just how easy it is for a knowledgeable pro to get in and out of a vehicle without an owner knowing it. Merchandise left in bags often has credit card receipts in with it and they know it.

Destroy Unused Credit Cards

Carefully review your credit card account statements every month and only use cards that have the very latest in up to date security measures. Even then, make it a point to toss out cards that you aren’t regularly using. Keeping several cards with high credit limits is just asking for trouble.

Never Use Checks or Debit Cards Online

Never use a check or debit card when shopping online. Checks can be washed and rewritten to higher amounts and a debit card is a one way ticket into your savings. Consider using just one card for online shopping and make sure it’s a card from a company that uses up to date security measures.

Be Tight Fisted With Your Social Security Number

Start being stingy with your social security number. More businesses and organizations, such as you local gym are relying on social security numbers for tracking members because it’s easy and efficient. Learn to just say no! If they don’t have an alternative than you can be that they are a gold mine for an identity thief.

Several People Can Use Your Social Security Number

What you need to understand is that your social security number can be sold over and over again online or where undocumented workers congregate. It has a value and all it takes is one renegade employee in business that tracks members this way and every social security number in the files can be for sale on Internet.

Here is Something You Have Done Before

The last bit of advise from the convicted thieves is to never print your social security number or drivers license number on a check you have written. It’s a common security measure but it’s just too risky in this day and age. Use a check guarantee card and that should be enough.

For years now fraudsters have been having a heyday robbing people blind and ruining their credit. Of course one of their all time favorite tools of the trade has been stolen credit card information. Well finally some credit card providers have finally instituted new protection from identity theft. It’s about time too!

Protection From Identity Theft that Works

This is a three or four digit code that now can be found on the back of most Visa/MasterCard and Discover cards, as well as on the front of American Express cards. The concept behind how this code operates is so simple that you may wonder what took them so long. Anyway the fact is that they have now done it and here is how it works.

No Card No Purchase!

In a nut shell, the code is used to verify that the person making a purchase, either over the phone or the Internet, actually has possession of the card. It basically makes stolen numbers or magnetic strip information all but worthless to anyone who attempts to use it. If they don’t have the actual card they can’t make a purchase.

They Don’t Transfer to Card Receipts

The code enables a seller on the other end of the line to verify information that is cryptographically contained in the code. Also the numbers of this code are not raised, so they’re never recorded on any credit card receipts. Hence; in theory the code will only be available to you the card holder.

Even Merchants Now Need an Access Code

To make it even more difficult for Internet fraudsters, credit card companies that are using this code system now require all online merchants who want to accept their cards to obtain a security code themselves. It’s a merchants access code that enables them to check your code. There are still other new security measures that are being developed but this one is so simple and basic you have to wonder what took them so long.

• Is your identity theft service doing enough?

With each identity theft service holding itself up to be the one amongst all of them to protect your savings, credit and personal information, it can be rather difficult to decide which one to choose. In the end the best tip you can get, is to make an effort to understand how an identity thief works to make an educated decision.

It’s Primarily Done on the Internet

By and large most transactions that are made with stolen or fraudulently obtained lines of credit and credit cards are done on the Internet and initiated from an overseas location. That is that it’s primarily people in foreign countries making online purchases using Americans stolen credit.

The First Step in Shipping Goods Overseas

So then how do they get their hands on the merchandise without having it traced to them? Also won’t the fact that the products are being shipped overseas arouse suspicion? The solution to that problem is to have them first shipped to a person in the U.S. who then re-ships them overseas.

Just Another Old Romantic Fool

Would you believe that it’s lonely hearts who are found in online dating chat-rooms who are often tricked into accepting then re-shipping merchandise bought with stolen credit card numbers? It’s an all too common scenario. An older lonely man who thinks he is involved with an attractive younger woman in another country.

The Trail Always Runs to a Dead End

So the trail of the stolen loot all too often ends at the doorstep of some old fool who in most cases even used his own money to pay for the shipping. Just one more victim among many, so they’re never prosecuted. Of course the overseas location where he sent the goods ends up to be some cheap flat rented under a fake name.

The Best Identity Theft Service

The best identity theft service monitors online venues and chat-rooms using software that is programmed to detect their clients personal information. It’s places like these, where stolen credit card numbers, pin codes, debit cards, bank account numbers, etc are bought and sold for as little as $5.

It All Happens in 10 Minutes or Less

So then how long does it take for your card to be limited out or your bank account accessed, once it’s bartered on one of these underground Internet venues? A recent CNBC investigation found that on average, unless a stolen credit card was detected by an identity theft service, it took around 10 minutes for it to be depleted with online purchases.