Friday 19 April 2013

Identity theft: A serious issue.......

IDENTITY THEFT:

                        Identity theft occurs when someone, without your knowledge gain some of your
             personal information and use it to commit fraud. Identity theft is a crime used to refer to
             fraud  that involves someone pretending to be someone else in order to steal money or get
             other benefits.The victim of identity theft (The person whose identity has been assumed
             by the identity thief) can suffer adverse consequences if they are held accountable for the
             perpetrator's actions.

Identity theft can be divided in two categories:

            .Application fraud:  Application fraud happens when a criminal uses stolen or fake document
                                            to open an account in someone else's name. Criminal may try to steal
                                            documents such as utility bills and bank statements to build up useful
                                            personal information.

            Account takeover :  Account takeover happens when a criminal tries to take over another
                                            person's account first by gathering information about the intended victim,
                                            and then contacting their card issuer masquerading as  the genuine card
                                            holder, and asking for mail to be redirected to a new address. The
                                            criminal  then report the card lost and ask for a replacement to be sent.

How to avoid identity theft?????????????                                          
                                            
                 1/ Never provide personal or financial information including your passwords, credit card
                     information, account numbers to unknown persons.
                
                 2/ Never click web links in your mail, chat box. It may contain malicious code that can
                     enter into your computer and retrieve the valuable information.

                 3/ Shred any sensitive documents before you throw them in to trash.

                 4/ Review your credit card bill every month to make sure there has not been extra charges.

                 5/ Review your credit card information regularly to  make sure there have not been new
                     issue cards or accounts.

                 6/ Don't participate in peer to peer networks if you are not familiar with this type of
                     networks.

What to do if it happens to you?????????????

                 1/ The first thing  to do is to report the crime to the police and get a copy of your report.

                 2/  Immediately contact your credit card issuing bank and close your existing account and
                     get replacements cards with new account numbers.

                 3/  Close any account which were opened without your awareness.

Follow steps when you online????

                 1/ Use phising filters in your Internet browser.

                 2/ Don't use passwords like name, date of birth , pet name etc...
            
                 3/ Look for digital certificates when you use credit card on Internet and also see that your
                     CVV number is typed in non clear text.
                

           


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