March 23, 2023

Despite common belief, identity theft has proven to be a recurring problem capable of devastating lives. Thankfully, there are steps available to protect yourself from such theft. This article will discuss some steps to stay ahead of identity thieves.

In many cases, identity theft is a crime of opportunity. As such, taking simple precautions can lower your chances of becoming a victim. However, if you become a victim of identity theft, it could mean you made it easy for the thief to steal your information.

Look for ways that an identity thief could steal your personal information and try to protect it. Staying vigilant could considerably reduce the chances of becoming a victim of identity theft. Your vigilance makes you a difficult target, encouraging thieves to lose interest in search of an easier victim. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that every identity thief will lose interest. No matter how careful you act, a thief will eventually find and exploit a weakness.

Still, you could reduce your risk of identity theft by taking the following steps.

Secure Your Personal Information

Protecting your personal information is vital in preventing identity theft, as thieves cannot cause much harm without it. As such, you must keep your digital and physical information safe. For example, keep a close eye on your medical records, financial documents, driver’s license, Social Security Card, and other sensitive information items. You can secure this information by keeping them out of sight in your home and safe online. In addition, you could shred any physical documents with sensitive information when you no longer need them. Shredding this paperwork ensures no one finds and uses it.

Choose Secure Passwords

Another good step to protect your information is using secure passwords. Securing your passwords can go a long way toward keeping people from obtaining your personal information online. However, this means not repeating passwords, which many people do. Unfortunately, reusing passwords is a tempting choice because repeating passwords are easier to remember. To prevent this, consider using a password manager and two-factor authentications to secure your accounts. In addition, you could make difficult recovery questions to ensure thieves cannot recover these passwords in your place.

Be Careful What You Post

Identity thieves can use the information you post online to try and guess passwords. They can also use information pieced together from your posts to impersonate someone you know. Deceiving you in this way allows them to learn more personal information about you; they may even trick you into taking actions that benefit them.

Obtain a Copy of Your Credit Check and Background Check

Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that an identity thief will fail to get your information. As such, you should monitor your credit to see if anyone has opened accounts in your name. If someone has stolen your identity, finding out sooner rather than later will prove crucial. The sooner you discover unfamiliar actions under your name, the sooner you can minimize the damage and clear your name. In addition, consider running a self-background check to ensure no one has used your identity for criminal purposes.

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