Safeguarding My Personal Info
Identity theft is otherwise known as literally, a “thief of identity.” Identity theft occurs when a person acquires or uses someone else's personal information fraudulently and without permission. This information includes your social security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or credit card number.
There are many ways a thief can steal your personal information, including dumpster diving, skimming, phishing/hacking, and unsecured mailboxes.
Believe it or not, there are people that go through a person’s trash to find valuable pieces of information. To prevent this from happening, one must shred all documents that contain their name, address, account numbers, birth date, social security number, etc.
Skimming is also another very dangerous way thieves can steal your information. Skimming devices are placed on ATMs to copy the card’s data and later clone it to another card. One must always pay attention to monthly credit/debit card statements and report unrecognized transactions immediately. One suggestion is to enable transaction notifications on your phone and email so that whenever a transaction is held, you can know if it is that person or if it is theft.
Phishing is a way of obtaining private information online. Hackers and thieves send out emails/popup messages that make you want to click a link. However, these links are malicious ways of thieves stealing your information. Never respond to requests that ask you for your personal information over the Internet. “Stick to your gut” when coming across these types of messages. If you accidentally download malicious content, programs in the background can track your keystrokes(to obtain sensitive information) and e-mails to steal your personal information. Hackers and thieves can also obtain information through your network, so if you are on a public network, very often times, it is not safe. Having secure passwords can also help protect yourself from computers trying to log into your accounts. Generally, common words (especially the word “password”) are not good to use. Instead, use longer, more unique letters with a combination of symbols, capital letters, and numbers.
It is important to safeguard your personal information to protect yourself from identity theft. There are multiple places that thieves might steal you personal information such as your trash, electronics, mailboxes, and ATM transactions. They can dig through your trash and find things like your bank account numbers and credit card number. To protect yourself make sure to shred all documents with personal information on it such as: cellphone bills, bank statements, expired credit cards, and ATM receipts. Similarly, people might look through your mail so make sure to use a long on your mailbox and memorize your billing cycles. This will deter people from digging around in your mail and help you find out if they are. Remember to always make strong passwords for electronics, ATM pins, etc so that others can’t easly guess it. To prevent people from stealing personal information through your electronics: setup hard-to-guess passwords on all your electronic devices, don’t online shop or access your bank accounts on public wifi, and avoid storing all your passwords on a notes app. Make sure to keeps your devices up to date and use anit-virus and spam filters. Don’t click on sketchy links that ask for money or passwords and don’t share personal information or location on social media. With all of that in mind you can safeguard your personal information and live a happy life.