There are plenty of criminals out there trying to steal your identity and use it to commit fraud. The internet has made it both much easier to do so and much harder to catch these criminals. Given this serious risk, here are some of the things you should not do:
- Never give out your internet password. Not even your internet provider will ask for it.
- Never give out your social security number. Even your bank or credit union will only ask for the last four digits to use for account access.
- Never give out personal information to someone calling you. If it is someone you do not know, ask for a phone number and say you will call them back.
If you have been the victim of identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission says this is what you should do:
- Call the companies where you know fraud occurred and speak with their fraud department.
- Place a fraud alert and get your credit reports. Place a free, one-year fraud alert by contacting one of the three credit bureaus.
- Report identity theft to the FTC.
After this, you will need to try to recover from the identity theft.
- Close any new accounts opened with your stolen identity.
- Call your accounts and get them to remove any bogus charges.
- Call the credit bureaus and correct your reports.
- Consider a freeze on all your accounts and credit cards. Open new ones.
- Check your credit reports each month.