Don’t Let Your Identity and Credit Score Be Abused By Someone Else

Identity theft is a real threat against our everyday lives. It is of utmost concern that all of us take the necessary precautions in order to protect ourselves and our household from people seeking to steal personal information about you or anyone in your family. If you are looking to maintain a good credit score rating, then you should know everything there is to know about identity theft.

What is identity theft? It is the crime of stealing sensitive personal information like credit card, Social Security and other data that can be used to make purchases or obtain money on your behalf and at your expense. Identity theft usually precedes massive financial fraud in terms of unauthorized transactions for which the unfortunate victim is made to pay, which means identity theft is a threat to someone’s credit score and standing. Some people even use the stolen information for blackmail. 

It is a very real threat that does not choose its victims. In a 2007 survey by Javelin Strategy & Research, it had been found out that losses stemming from identity theft in the United States have amounted to US$45 billion, with 8.1 million victims. There are even incidents that even 7-year old children have been ripped off their identities by hackers and thieves. A lot of credit score ratings have been destroyed by these criminals who unfortunately do not have any consideration at all.

          Identity theft had been prevalent during the paper age and, with the arrival of the Internet and online commerce, the crime experienced a boom. The Internet allowed for convenient shopping from your home through e-commerce. Unfortunately, hackers are also lurking in the corners, waiting to intercept your personal information so they could use it to their advantage and to your disadvantage. It could be said that using the Internet to shop places you at risk of having your credit score suffer from the actions of somebody else.

          Before, stealing identities were accomplished by rummaging through trash bins for discarded bills, etc. In the cyber age, hackers use malicious software (malware) that is surreptitiously installed in an unsuspecting victim’s computer. These malware then serve as backdoors, though which remote access to your computer is possible. These programs allow hackers to gather personal and sensitive information.

          Identity theft can lead to the degradation of your credit score as you are rendered unable to pay up for the unauthorized transactions that were done using the stolen information. This would frustrate your efforts to raise credit score, and affects your eligibility to acquire new credit in case you’d need it.

Signs of Having Your Identity Stolen

There are many signs of identity theft that you can watch out for. These signs include:

	You get figures on your bills that you are not aware of making, usually in large amounts. Your credit score plummets down if you are unable to pay off these bills. If this happens, go to any credit bureau’s web site and get credit score reports so you’d find if you are a victim of identity theft. You should also make complaints to the credit card company under the Fair Credit Billing Act so your credit score may be restored.
	You are frequently denied a loan application, sometimes with the reason that you are already approved for that loan or that your credit score is not good enough. Same drill as number 1, get a copy of your credit score ratings from the credit bureaus and fix your credit score right away.
	You are flooded with mails from people you don’t know, and you get annoying calls from telemarketers. This only means some stole your personal information and dispersed it to these telemarketers.

The symptoms of identity theft are not limited to these three. You can do more research on the topic, if you are serious about preserving your credit score and prevent it from going down without you knowing why or how.

Protect Yourself From Identity Theft

There are several ways that you can protect yourself from identity theft and keep your credit score from being affected by these criminals’ actions. Protecting yourself means you are hiding your sensitive information from the people that are looking to take it and use it without your consent, and thus protecting your credit score.

Most people make the mistake of just crumpling their receipts and credit card bills and then throw them into the trash cans. Unfortunately, this practice will make you vulnerable to this threat of degrading credit score. Throwing your bills does not mean it cannot be used anymore. A better way to dispose of these paperwork is to shred them so the information cannot be read or used, which you should do if you want to prevent your credit score ratings from plunging down without your knowledge.

Never give out your information to anyone, even close friends because even they can be a threat to your credit score. When shopping using the Internet, make sure that the site connects to the credit card issuer’s secure connection so you can be certain that your transactions are protected from hackers who can do anything that can affect your credit score ratings. Install a firewall and antivirus/anti-spyware program on your computer, so that these malicious applications will not be installed on your computer. This will prevent hackers from remotely accessing your computer and do anything that can threat the quality of your credit score ratings.