Credit theft is hard to avoid, but you can reduce the risks
A Brooklyn, NY man described as a “trainee dishwasher” stole the identities of Hollywood and Wall Street figures such as Steven Spielberg and Warren Buffett back in 2002 using nothing more than a dog-eared Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans and a public computer in the library.
By the time Abraham Abdallah was caught and pleaded guilty, he had scammed some $80 million through fake credit cards and fraudulent wire transfers.
The scope of his fraud makes Abdallah’s an extreme case, but his methods are the same being used by copycats out to steal your financial identity.
Protect yourself
Experts say it is not a matter of whether you will fall victim to identity theft, but when. Since the odds are now so high, everyone should take precautions to make it harder for their identities to be stolen.
There are many ways to prevent credit theft:
Check your credit card account online frequently; don’t wait for the monthly bill.
Make sure your credit card company has your latest phone number on record: they call clients who appear to have questionable transactions.
Reduce the number of solicitations for credit that could be stolen by removing yourself from pre-approved credit card lists. Go to the site www.optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-567-8688.
After card theft
If you fall victim to credit theft, work with your bank or card company but also contact one of the three credit reporting agencies to put a 90-day fraud alert on your account.
Contact them at www.equifax.com, www.experian.com, or www.transunion.com. You only need to contact one; it will tell the others about the fraud alert.
Here are some other tips: Don’t give out your Social Security number. Do not write down your PIN number. Remove information from your old computer—smash the hard drive if necessary. Use complicated passwords and change them several times a year. Shred anything with personal information using a crosscut shredder.
Finally, install anti-spyware, anti-virus, and firewall programs on your computer and update them regularly.