How To Prevent Identity Theft

 1. What Is Identify Theft?

2. Motives Of Identify Theft

3. Dangers of Identity Theft

4. How To Prevent Identity theft

1.Preventing FOMO-Based Scam 2. Handling Scam Calls 3. Scams Warning Signs

In this edition of De-Scamming The Scam:  Resisting Fraud And   Emotional Spending., we will be tackling another crucial target of scam activities.

I am talking about personal identity and how it's virtually inseparable from one's personality itself.

Simply put, in today's fast-paced  computer age, your identity is you.

Whether we are talking about private or public environment, it is the image of you that people recognize and accept.

However, what happens if somebody tampers with it without your involvement or permission?

What happens if you go to sleep one day and wake up the next day to discover that your personal identifying information (PII) has been altered or abused?

That's what usually happens when somebody's personal identity is stolen.

What Is Identity Theft?

There are roughly two stages involved in understanding what in truth constitutes Identity Theft.

At one level, you could regard it as an act of impersonation, which largely entails  pretending to be someone other than yourself.

Of course, without a doubt, the intention is always to deceive and manipulate others for selfish and dubious gains.

Acts of impersonation  can occur in many ways and within various contexts, both online and offline, most especially:

• social media
• email
• chat rooms
• in person,
• phone calls.

Here are a few recurring examples of this negative practice:

•  Using someone else's name to create a fake social media profile
• falsely presenting oneself as a customer support agent or  government official
• Using someone's personal details or likeness to successfully access restricted records or data.

On the other hand, 

identity theft is a graver, even more calculated scam or fraudulent activity.

It means an unauthorized use or theft of somebody's personal identifying information (PII), such as:

• name

• Social Security number

• National Identity Number (NIN)

• credit card number

• other sensitive data.

It covers a wider range of criminal exercise and its primary motive is to dubiously extract financial or economic benefits from unsuspecting preys.

Examples include:

• Stealing another person's credit card information to make unauthorized purchases

• illegally using someone's Social Security number or National Identity Number (NIN) to open new credit accounts or to secure loans

•   Creating fake identification documents, like driver's licenses or passports.

To understand it better, just think of Identity theft as somebody not merely impersonating you but also:

• stealing your personal information

      e.g. your name,            address, bank                info, or phone               number

• Using  them without asking for your permission. 

For instance:

Someone who has stolen your personal identify information can:

• go about impersonating you and buying things online at your expense

• open a bank account in your name.

Obviously you would not even realize what goes on until your bills arrive or you start receiving debit alerts or notifications.

Why They Steal Identities

Their reasons or motives are not farfetched, but actually quite obvious

Straight away, let's look at the key ones:

1.  To criminally make use 

of your money, credit or debit card to purchase things without your knowledge or authorization

2. To use your name 

and personal details to secure a loan or credit and saddle you with its repayment

3. To commit crimes 

and hide their real personality by using your  stolen personal identity information. 

4.  To sell your personal

 information to other bad eggs. 

How Do They Do It?

In case you are wondering how your identity can be stolen, don't sweat it.

Here's how they usually do It:

• extract personal details clandestinely from people through deceptive emails and text messages
• ransack refuse dumps and trash bins for personal records or documents they can find, especially bank account and credit card statements
• explore or browse the popular social networking sites to scoop personal information on unsuspecting persons
• scour hard drives of  discarded or stolen computers (including those in repair workshops)
• hack into the  computer networks of organizations, agencies, or institutions, and siphon computer-based company or public records
• infect computers  by overtly installing information-gathering malware on them, and by so doing extracting personal data.

Dangers Of Identity Theft

How does it affect innocent persons or victims?

1. You could find

 yourself owing money for things you did not buy or even know anything about. 

2. It negatively affects 

or lowers your credit score, which is a numerical rating that represents your creditworthiness based on history, payment habits, and financial factors.

3. Criminal charges:

Scammer's atrocities are likely to attract criminal charges or legal issues against you for crimes you didn't commit.

4. Account Takeovers:

If scammers open new accounts in your name, it could inflict serious financial loss and damage on your reputation.

5. Loan and mortgage  Crisis:

Overnight, you may start to  experience  being denied access to loans or mortgages, as a result of scams that were perpetrated using your stolen identity.

6. Time-Consuming Resolution:

Its never an easy task for you or anyone to get out of Identity Scam fix.

In fact, it can be very stressful and time-consuming to resolve.

7. Emotional Meltdown:

To be a victim of identity theft can be devastating.

It could inflict  terrible emotional distress and anxiety on you.

8. Loss of Benefits:

Lastly  identity corruption or manipulation may cause you to lose  benefits like health insurance or government assistance.

How To Prevent Identity Theft

1. Create Very Strong Passwords:

Irrespective of which account it is,  be it bank, email, social media, etc - always use strong passwords or PIN which others can't easily guess.

Avoid using the initial letters of your names or chronological numbers as part of your password, e.g abc, 56789, etc.

Mix special numbers and text, make it complicated, like:

Sun@&21/tre2013.

Likewise, you should not use the same password for multiple accounts.

Make each one different and unique.

Otherwise, once your password gets stolen, identity thieves can try it on any of your accounts and possibly succeed. 

2. Keep Your Personal Information Confidential:

Protect your personal data.

Ensure you don't broadcast your full name, address, phone number, or bank details to strangers.

3.  Treat Emails and links With Caution:

Remember that scammers pretend to be someone you know or trust.

Therefore, anytime you receive an email that's asking for your personal information, don’t click on the links or reply.

4.  Use secure websites:

Whenever you are shopping online, make very sure that you are on a secure site.

You can do this by look for "https://" at the start of the website address. Locating that bit means that it’s safe. 

5.  Public Wi-Fi Trap:

When conducting online banking or shopping, don't do it on public Wi-Fi in cafes or airports, because they are neither safe not secure.

On the contrary, you should utilize a private, secure internet connection or a VPN, which is a secure special app.

Otherwise, identity stealers can steal your information on public Wi-Fi.   

6. If Not In Use keep Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Off:

Hackers can easily connect through active bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Therefore, I advise you to make sure that both are  always turned off whenever you are not using them.

7. Monitor Your Financial Records:

As a matter of necessity, you should prioritize constantly checking your bank accounts, bills, and credit card statement.

That enables you to quickly notice if anything's gone wrong,  in which case you must immediately alert the relevant authorities. 

8. Two-Step Verification Method:

Attach extra safety precautions to your accounts login-in.

Ask for additions like a code to be sent to your phone, in order to ensure that only you can successfully sign in. 

9. Permanently Destroy Old Documents:

Don't just squeeze or  crumple unwanted old documents with personal information on them before throwing them away.

Identity thieves can always dig them up from trash bins and use them.

Rather, you should thoroughly cut up any papers containing your name, address, or bank information before discarding them. 

In fact, it's safer to dispose of them  by using a shredding machine to render them unusable.

10. Security Updates:

Regularly keep your computer, phone, other devices, and their software updated, in order to stay protected from identity thieves. 

11. Social Media Precautions:

Mind what you put on social media.

Resist placing sensitive information on your social media profiles, like your full address, phone number, or your school name.

Identity thieves can use this data to impersonate you. 

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