Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft

If you’re like me, your credit cards got quite a work out over the holiday season. With identity theft the fastest growing white collar crime in America (according to the FBI), it could benefit you to carefully review your bank and credit card statements carefully over the coming months, to be sure that there are no fraudulent charges.

“Over the holidays is a good time for identity thieves to steal your information,” warns R.M. Tracy, former FBI agent and author of Reduce Your Risk of Fraud and Identity Theft. “We’re using our credit cards more, we may be tired and not watching our stuff. Something (such as a credit card) could have been stolen and maybe you haven’t noticed it yet.”

Tracy says ID theft has become so prevalent because, for thieves, the return on investment is high. “Stealing a wallet for the cash might only land a crook a few dollars. But, accessing (victims’) bank accounts, credit or credit cards, could bring in thousands of dollars, if not more. Now that’s big money!”

Tracy offers these tips from her book, Reduce Your Risk of Fraud and Identity Theft, to help your keep your most personal information away from ID thieves:

1. Check your credit card and bank statements closely for unauthorized charges and report anything erroneous or fraudulent as soon as you see it. If you bank online, check daily!

Everyone should do this consistently throughout the year but especially post holiday due to an increase in fraud and ID theft activity around the holidays. It’s especially important to identify check fraud or unauthorized access to bank accounts, because the time limit for reporting fraud on these accounts is shorter than credit cards (most credit card companies allow up to 60 days to report unauthorized charges).

2. Use a credit card, or a debit card like a credit card. You will be better protected when using your debit card as a ‘credit’ (where you physically sign a receipt, versus entering a PIN number at check out), because of the laws and difficulty in recovering money stolen through unauthorized access to bank accounts.