How to fight Identity Theft

A lot has been written on how one can protect their identity online or otherwise. However, it never seems sufficient enough to emphasise the pressing necessity of it. Although identity theft has been around for many decades now, it has now become more intricate due to criminals adopting more high tech means to commit crimes.

Theft of a person’s identity can entail the physical theft of his/her id documents and/or credit cards. In other cases, the fraudsters can also get a hold of someone’s personal information electronically as well. All such information obtained by the criminal is then used to obtain access to any and all sorts of financial benefits.

Digital services can have a horde of benefits, for users and provide increased accessibility and productivity in our lives. But with increased use of technology one also needs to be careful about what they share online. It is also helpful to take some safety measures to avoid identity fraud;

Protect Your Identity Physically

While everyone is careful about not losing their wallets which contain their ID cards, drivers licences and credit cards, one cannot control incidents of theft and robbery. In case you lose your wallet and your identification documents and credit cards along with it, it is important that you report the theft immediately. Additionally, you should also keep your passwords secure and try and keep them as unique and strong as possible. Keep a shredder handy as well; always shred any documents containing your personal documents once you are done with them.

Use Anti-Virus Software and Firewalls

It is obvious for any computer to have anti-virus software to protect from any malware attacking your system every time you download something or use the internet in general. An added measure of security are firewalls, which prevent any viruses from the internet to be downloaded to your system. Most smartphones also have built-in anti-virus programs installed into their system, if you do not have one, make sure to download them.

Validate your Identity Online

Businesses both online and physical have taken fraud prevention measures in the form of online identity verification. They use digital systems to identify their users’ identities and use multiple levels of identity verification checks to make sure the person buying from them is who he really says he is. These checks can include identity verification through document verification, face verification and AML checks. Discover more here about identity theft protection services.

Beware of “Cookies” from Various Websites

A lot of websites these days use cookies. Cookies are basically text files that are downloaded to your computer when you visit a certain website. They are primarily used to assist logins or to remember a user’s location from their last visit. They may seem harmless, but sometimes malicious websites use cookies to collect information like passwords and personal information. One way to avoid this is by optimising your browser’s privacy settings so that you get a warning every time website asks permission to use cookies.