Be Aware And Identity Theft Protect Yourself

One of the most popular scams is called "phishing" -- pronounced "fishing" -- and that's exactly what it comes down to. Thieves fish for information. Protecting yourself from identity theft means being able to decide when one of these criminals is trying to reel you in to get your personal information.

Have you ever received an email urging you to reply, otherwise your bank account or credit card may be suspended? If so, you've just been solicited by a technique known as "phishing." These emails request you to submit information like your card number and your PIN to confirm your identity. However, most emails sent out by phishers have misspellings and bad grammar. A careful eye is all you need in protecting yourself from identity theft.

In another scam -- not involving the internet -- a crook may approach you with a story that he or she is a bank employee, and that you've been selected to help in the investigation of a dishonest teller. The person pulling the old "bank examiner scam" tells you that the manager will get in touch with you, and that you will withdraw your own money for the investigation. The story is really about identity theft. Remember that law enforcement would never ask you to use your money for an investigation -- and identity theft protect yourself means turning the cops onto the people who asked you to do so.

Another common trick involves a shyster phoning to tell you there have been fraudulent charges on your credit card. The person mentions a company you've never heard of and asks for your credit card number, your full name as it appears on the card, and the expiration date of the card. You can fight identity theft by following a simple rule: Never give credit card information to anyone who calls you. Tell them you will call the credit card company yourself to straighten the problem out and hang up. You need to be leery of phone solicitations to identity theft protect yourself from would be scam artists.

When Frank Abagnale trains law enforcement officers for the FBI's National Academy about identity theft, he asks agents for their addresses and nothing more. The next day, he returns with everything he would need to steal their lives: Social Security numbers, dates of birth, current salary, checking account numbers, the names of everyone in their family, and more. This illustrates how easy it is for anyone from anywhere in the world to assume our identity and, in a matter of hours, devastate our lives in ways that can take years to recover from. Considering the fact that a fresh victim is hit in the U.S. every four seconds, Stealing Your Life is the reference everyone needs, by an unsurpassed authority on the latest identity-theft schemes.

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