Stealing identities has become a very popular criminal pursuit. Crooks can make a fortune simply selling personal information. Those that buy it seek to exploit another persons credit rating or steal directly from their bank accounts.
Your identity consists of a lot of different details. Your name is the most obvious detail that identifies you. Then there is information such as your current address, your age, date of birth, place of birth and your gender, all of which the identity fraudster would like to have.
Further information becomes more private and might consist of your parents' names, including your mother's maiden name, your pet's name and your children's' names and ages.
After this might come various official pieces of information. These might include your passport number, driving license number and social security number. Only you and the official body that issues it know all this information.
Then at last you have bank account information, including bank name and address, sort code, account number and any passwords and other access information you use. You know that you must be careful with this information and ensure that fraudsters do not have access to it.
But in fact all the information is valuable to the fraudster. It is not just the bank account and password that can allow him to make illegal gains. He will build up a profile of an individual from a name here and a detail there. Eventually he might have enough to apply for a credit card in your name. Then he might use this card to rack up a huge bill that he has no intention of paying.
Crooks will steal rubbish from household bins, looking for discarded documents containing personal information. An old electricity bill will provide a name and address. It is also a document evidencing the address that can be used to support an application for a credit account.
Large lists of information are stolen regularly from organizations, who are supposed to keep your data safe. Maybe on its own this data does not allow anybody to compromise you, however it may be a single detail away from doing so.
In order to ensure that nobody hacks into your bank account or sets up a credit account in your name there are a number of preventative measures you can take. These measures take very little time and do not cost a lot. A little care can make sure you do not fall foul to the identity fraudster. It is always complacency that helps the crooks to steal your money.
Every house should have a shredder. These can be bought for very little from your local stationery store. Every bill or document that you previously screwed before binning up should be thoroughly shredded before discarding. It only takes a few seconds. Never give out your information over the Internet if requested to do so by an email. No matter how official looking such a communication might be, a bank will never ask you for your password or account details - it already knows them! This is called phishing, and over the Internet is now a serious problem. The crooks can make their emails and web sites look exactly like the real ones.
Try to use a complicated password for your bank accounts, not the same one for every account. Avoid obvious details such as birthdays or names. If you must write them down keep the details safe. A small home safe or even a locked drawer will help ensure crooks cannot access your accounts. Always use a good home computer protection software package such as Norton or McAffee so that fraudsters cannot attack your computers to obtain personal data over the Internet.
Finally, read up about identity fraud. As with all areas of fraud it pays to be suspicious. Do not share details unless you have instigated the transaction and then only when you are sure who you are dealing with.
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