Identity theft and how to know if you’ve been victimized

Today, if you want to prevent being victimized by identity theft, you have to maintain a constant vigil on all of your personal information. Identity theft or credit theft is a crime that is getting worse every year, and the authorities are having a great deal of trouble keeping abreast of it. There are some obvious signs that a thief might be interfering with your personal information; you need to know how to identify them. A nice place to start guarding your financial information is to monitor your mail, as the most frequent source of identity or credit theft is mail. The typical identity theft victim often doesn't find out about it until almost a year has passed.

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Here are a few things you ought to watch out for to avoid becoming a victim:

• Credit card use - Inexpensive charges from Wal-Mart may not strike you as unusual if you often shop there. Keep an eye on every purchase on your card, as a lot of opportunists try inexpensive charges at ordinary stores before using the card for bigger or more exotic purchases. Anything you don't understand (hotel bill from Paris?) might be a signal that a criminal is using your bank card. Odd charges on your credit card bill might indicate a problem.
• Billing statements that have not shown up. Missing mail is a typical sign of trouble; you could soon end up with a lot of bills in your name that you don't even know about. If you haven't seen a billing statement from the cable TV company in several months, it could mean that a criminal has appropriated it and altered the address.

• Calls from debt collectors or "late" statements in the mail - If you are receiving notices of late bills or calls from collectors for goods and services you didn't buy, that's a certain signal that someone may be employing your good name for terrible deeds.
• Passwords that don't work anymore - If you cannot log in to a Website that you regularly use, it could be a signal that your account has been compromised, especially if you use online banking. Crooks have software programs that can help determine passwords for online accounts.
• Your credit history is great but you're declined for more - You might discover all manner of entries on your credit report that you don't know about. If you have great credit (or suspect you do) and you have recently been denied credit, it could be a warning sign. Take advantage of the opportunity to look at your credit report from all three credit reporting agencies and make sure that nothing is wrong. Have you done a credit record examination lately?

Nowadays, it's not sufficient to believe that everything is OK; you have to take charge and stay on top of your financial information. The sooner you take charge of your personal information, the sooner you lower your vulnerability. It often takes several months to fix these problems problems; why do it if you don't have to? Failure to keep vigilant might lead to realizing that a thief has wiped out your bank or credit union account, purchased a home, or run up five thousand dollars in bank card charges in your name. As this insidious crime becomes a lot more common, the possibility of huge financial loss grows.