Six Ways Identity Thieves Get Your Information

You could wake up one day to a phone call from a creditor threatening to sue you if you don't settle your $50,000 debt. How did this happen? Someone else is posing as you. But how do they get your information? Here are a few ways:

1. They Can Steal Your Personal Information From Your Home During A Burglary: Dumber burglars are usually after drug money, and will look for cash and things they can easily pawn off at a pawn shop. More sophisticated burglars will skip the pawn shop and rifle through your file cabinet and stacks of personal records. Make sure your house is as secure as possible, and consider getting a file cabinet with a lock on it.

2 They Can Buy Your Information From "Inside" Sources: We've all wondered what that sketchy looking waiter was doing with our credit card as he disappeared around the corner. Most of the time they're honest, but the most dangerous of them are in league with credit card stealing rings. A contact will collect credit card numbers from a waiter or clerk, and sell them to a bigger international credit card ring.

3. They Can Rummage Through Your Files At Work: You know that disgruntled co-worker who is always complaining about not having enough money? There are ways for them to pad their meager incomes by betraying you and your information to identity rings. Know who is supposed to have access to your personal information at work. Minimize the amount of information that is available, and know your company's policies to know your risk.

4. They Can Hack Into A Computer On The Internet Where Your Information Is Stored: If you keep your credit card information on line, this information could be recovered by thieves. All reputable sites will encrypt your information, but this is sometimes not enough. Banks have been hit. Major retailers have been hit. Major internet service sites (like Monster.com) have been hit. Try to keep to a minimum the amount of your information you let companies store in their databases.

5. They Could Steal Your Phone: They don't even need to steal your phone for long. They could just "borrow" your phone to "call their dying mother" request a couple minutes of "privacy", and have all the room they need to find whatever there is to find on your phone. At the least they could use your address to feed your friend's phone numbers into their phone spam ring, and your friends will suddenly see an increase in unwanted dinnertime calls.

6. They Could Pose As Someone Needing Your Information Via Email. You could get an email message that says it comes from your bank, or from Paypal, or from Amazon, or from any of a number of other places. And they might ask you to log into your account to update some information. They link to a fake copy site, that takes your login information and redirects you to the real site. You think it's a simple login glitch, but really your password has just been stolen, and the poser can access your account, and can even change the password and lock you out.

Can you do anything about these forms of identity theft? Well, you can take more care with your information, in some of the ways mentioned above. But there are now also ways to get indentity theft protection. Take some time to check them out.

Article Source: http://www.rightbiz.com

Jim Stone advises individuals about how increase the security in six areas of their lives. Learn more about Identity Theft at www.SixFoldSecurity.com

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