Menace of Identity Theft

Identity theft is a real pain, and it is unfortunately very common, especially in the United States. Identity theft is all about  pretending to be someone else in order to obtain credit or any other type of benefits in somebody else’s name. It can also be used to facilitate illegal immigration or terrorism.

The Identity Theft Resource Center sub-divides identity theft into five categories : business/commercial to obtain credit, criminal when apprehended for a crime, financial to obtain credit, goods or services, identity cloning in daily life, and medical to obtain care or drugs.

Identity thieves have many techniques to obtain all the information they need to steal your identity. The first one, and also the simplest one, is to go through people rubbish, also called dumpster diving. We receive tons of mails everyday, especially offers from credit card companies, containing our first and last names, address, and a client number. Some other paperwork have our social security numbers on them or even our bank account number.

There is another way that people do not suspect at all, not that we suspect people dumpster diving in our rubbish… but when we sell a computer, very often we do not know how to sanitize it properly, and we think that deleting every type of information stored in the hard drive is enough. No, it’s not enough, and our personal data can be visible and in stranger’s hands. Of course, pickpocketing is also one of the most used technics to steal identity.

Protecting ourselves against this type of fraud counts a few steps that are not rocket science. The first thing is to shred every type of document that contains any name, address or worst, social security numbers or bank account numbers. Also, nobody should give any personal information by phone, or even send personal information by mail. Last but not least, instead of sending checks on which anybody can find our account number and the corresponding routing number, it is better to pay bills on our bank’s website. These websites are very secure, and banks have insurances that can cover any type of problems.

Another pain is moving. Oasis Moving and Storage might be the solution. The reviews here seem to say yes, they are the answer to your prayers.