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October 11, 2004
How To Protect Yourself From Identity Theft
Interview
with Michael J. Arata, Jr. author of the book, Preventing
Identity Theft For Dummies
Mike
Carruthers:
Identity theft, people getting a hold of your personal information,
opening up accounts in your name then basically reeking havoc with your life,
how big a problem is it? Michael
J. Arata, Jr.:
Twenty eight thousand Americans a day become
victims of identity theft. Michael
Arata author of the book, Preventing
Identity Theft For Dummies says you can protect yourself if you know how the
bad guys operate. Identity
theft begins usually with mail; people steal mail from the mailbox, either mail
that has been delivered or mail you leave out to pay bills. It's got a lot of
personal information in there and that's where it usually starts. They try to
get a piece of information here, a piece of information there. The
other way identity thieves get information is getting you to give it to them. By
calling you on the phone and using a ruse of saying that they need personal information
because a fraud has been perpetrated against your credit card. Asking personal
information about a bank account cause your bank account has been compromised. Another
way is called fishing using official looking emails to ask you for that same personal
information. The
advice is don't, if you get an email asking you for personal information or a
phone call don't give it to them. If it's an email call the bank, call the financial
institution if you do bank there and work with that financial institution. If
somebody calls you on the phone and you didn't initiate the call don't give them
personal information. And
Michael says don't leave your own paper trail. Buy
a shredder and use a shredder and shred those documents after you pay your bills,
canceled checks, things you don't need for the IRS purposes, get rid of them,
shred them. At
somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm
Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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