How can someone steal your identity

Or did you start getting a new bill you do not know about? Are there accounts or other information you do not recognize? If you answer yes to any of these questions, someone might have stolen your identity. What is a credit report? Your credit report is a summary of your credit history. It lists: your name, address, and Social Security number your credit cards your loans how much money you owe if you pay your bills on time or late All the information in the credit report should be about you.

Why should I try to fix my credit report? You can lower your risk. Every time you shop in a store, you: watch your wallet are careful with your credit card or debit card do not tell people your PIN number When you shop online, you can: use passwords that people cannot guess shop on secure websites. What To Do. How can I protect my identity? Here are some things you can do: At home: keep your financial records, Social Security and Medicare cards in a safe place shred papers that have your personal or medical information take mail out of your mailbox as soon as you can As you do business: only give your Social Security number if you must.

Ask if you can use another kind of identification do not give your personal information to someone who calls you or emails you On the computer: use passwords that are not easy to guess. Use numbers and symbols when you can do not respond to emails or other messages that ask for personal information do not put personal information on a computer in a public place, like the library How will I know if someone steals my identity?

Read your bills and account statements. Watch for: things you did not buy withdrawals you did not make a change of your address that you did not expect bills that stop coming Look at medical statements. To order: Call Annual Credit Report at Answer questions from a recorded system.

You have to give your address, Social Security number, and birth date. Choose to only show the last four numbers of your Social Security number. It is safer than showing the full number on your report. Choose which credit reporting company you want a report from.

You get one report free from each company every year. The company mails your report to you. It should arrive two to three weeks after you call.

Read more. Privacy Policy USA. Your browser does not support this HTML5 audio player. Here are four of them. A thief could plug your name and address into a publicly searchable database to see what other pieces of information can be found. These pieces of PII could potentially be used to open new financial accounts. If a thief has these answers, he may be able to slip through and get more details about your financial accounts.

Checking your credit report for suspicious activity may help you if a thief has accessed your accounts or opened new ones. With a name and address, a thief can change your address via U. Postal Service and redirect mail to their address of choice, Velasquez says. With access to your financial mail, the thief may intercept bank statements and credit card offers or bills, then order new checks and credit cards.

This is a form of mail theft. Some good news: The postal service has a few security steps in place to trip up this type of fraud. Here are some steps Nichols urges you to take to protect yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft. Monitor your credit regularly. Keep an eye out for illegitimate inquiries or suspicious accounts opened in your name. Likewise, stay attuned to alerts from your bank, credit card provider and other financial institution.

Note that small, probing attempts at intrusion are often made before a full-blown attempt at compromising your identity occurs. Freeze your credit. A credit freeze also known as a security freeze restricts access to your credit reports, helping safeguard against fraudsters opening new accounts in your name, but a credit freeze may not stop misuse of your existing accounts or some other types of identity theft. Also, companies that you do business with would still have access to your credit report for some purposes.

A credit freeze has no effect on your credit score or current credit accounts, and the process can be completed in less than 10 minutes. To freeze your credit, you must contact each of the three credit bureaus Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You'll be asked to provide personal information, such as name, address, Social Security number and birth date. You'll typically be asked a few questions to verify your identity and then be prompted to create a PIN, which should be kept in a secure location.

Close all open but unused credit cards and financial accounts in your name. Before doing so, though, consider how it will impact your credit score, noting that a portion of it may be determined by how much money you're able to borrow in total vs.

Register for a post office box. Have important letters containing sensitive information sent there to prevent thieves from casually raiding your mailbox. Use a virtual private network. Also called a VPN, this data-encryption software hides your identity , online activity and communications from unwanted eyes. Traditionally used for secure connections into corporate networks, many users are now using them to secure their presence in cyberspace by hiding their IP address from other users, making their activities invisible.

Install antivirus, antispyware and email-filtering software. Set these tools to automatically scan every 24 hours for possible points of concern, and always make sure you have the most updated versions.

The Federal Trade Commission offers further information on how to keep personal information secure , safeguard your identity and even freeze your credit if necessary. If you think you've been hacked, or spotted warning signs of identity theft, Nichols recommends immediately taking the following precautions.

Pull your credit report. Every year, you're entitled to one free credit report from each of the main credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can access these reports for free at annualcreditreport. If you think you've been hacked, pull your credit report immediately to look for unauthorized inquiries. Create an Identity Theft Report.

Found at IdentityTheft.