How to Avoid Identity Theft

How to Avoid Identity Theft

Gary Lee

Kaplan University

Unit 9 Project

How to Avoid Identity Theft

We have all heard the adage “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” Well this has never been more relevant than with online security today. Identity theft had become a wide-spread crime committed by thieves who use stolen personal information to commit various types of fraud. But computer crimes are nothing new to the United States; According to Wiley ( 2003) the first recorded computer abuse occurred in 1958 by someone altering bank records. And now today in 2012 the computer is the number one method of stealing in the United States. The method of choice for these thieves is known as phishing with the average cost being $4,500 in stolen funds per attack according to (PR, N. 2012). To protect themselves against identity theft consumers should understand how identity thieves work, guard their personal information, and learn what to do if it does happen to them.

In order for an identity thief to steal from an individual he or she must first gain knowledge of the individual’s personal information. This can be accomplished by something as simple as a lost or stolen wallet, stolen mail or even digging through trash for discarded documents with personal information on it. Phishing is the most common used method today by thieves. This technique involves a fraudulent email that looks like official notice from a business such as a credit card company or bank. The email will ask the person to verify some personal information and once the individual submits the information via the fraudulent email the information is then compromised. Each year according to Q research (2005) Nearly 10 million consumers are affected annually by lost or stolen data at a cost to the economy of $53 billion dollars.

How to Avoid Identity Theft

There are some simple but effective steps that one can take to avoid identity theft. First credit reports need to...