Identity theft is when someone assumes your identity in order to gain access to bank accounts, tax information, social networking sites, your social security number, or other sensitive areas or information.  Identity thieves take advantage of information that is not properly protected by security services. 

 

ID theives are also good at lots of techniques to steal your information.  Identity thieves are expert phishers and are often able to frighten victims into giving out user names or passwords by pretending to be a bank or some other “trusted” institution.  They can also use compromised information from cyber-attacks to gain access without you even knowing it.

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Sometimes social security numbers are stored for thousands of young people (such as students) in unprotected places.  Because children do not have a credit history, ID thieves take advantage of these “clean slates” to rack up debt and purchases.  Then, when the child grows up and needs to take out a loan for a car or college, they find that their credit is already ruined!

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Here are some tips to avoid having your identity stolen:

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• Change your password every few weeks, and make sure it's a strong one.

• Make sure you have an up-to-date backup email and phone number on file with your email provider (Gmail, Yahoo!, Comcast, etc) so that you can receive notifications when someone tries to hack your account.

• Keep informed about big cyber-attacks; if your email provider is hacked, immediately change your password.

• If you are a parent, occasionally check your child's credit history by using his or her social security number.  This way you can spot an identity theft early.