What is Identify Theft?
Identity theft happens when criminals get a hold of your sensitive personal information to take out loans, open fraudulent accounts, falsify tax returns, purchase properties, and use your good name to break the law.
How is your identity taken?
In identity theft, physical documents, institutional records, and lost wallets can also be used to expose sensitive information and commit identity theft. Criminals have many ways to access personal information, and some of them are completely out of your control (source).
What type of information is typically stolen?
Some of the most targeted pieces of information, such as full names and Social Security numbers, don’t change often over the course of a lifetime. When stolen and used by an identity thief, these more permanent pieces of information can’t be easily changed to resolve the problem.
Best Tools to Protect Your Identify:
- Always use multi-factor authentication for secure accounts such as logins for: banks, email address, online payment portals (Venmo, Zelle, etc), and any other platforms that house your identify or payment information.
- Utilize Identify Theft Protection. Services like Complete ID can help scan the dark web to keep your identity and information secure.
Related resources:
- None at this time.
