Have you ever thought about the various ways that someone can steal your identity? We might think it takes place mostly on the internet, however any of the following situations can result in identity theft:

1) Shredding mail or documents that contain personal information
2) Giving your credit card to a waiter or waitress
3) Putting paid bills or other mail with personal information in your home or business mailbox to be picked up by the carrier

4) Receiving “pre-approved” credit card applications by mail and not destroying them (or having them intercepted before you receive them)
5) Any situation where your personal information is left unattended by you
6) Being watched over your shoulder as you enter a pin number, etc.

Avoid being one of the statistics. Notice what is going on around you in the news, for instance:

California: a woman pleaded guilty to charges of getting thousands in credit with a stolen social security number. After obtaining all of this credit, she filed for bankruptcy in the victim’s name.

Florida: A person was imprisoned for using a web site to obtain the names, addresses and social security numbers of different individuals and then applying for car loans (using the internet) in their names.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 8:43 am and is filed under Document identity theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.