SALT LAKE CITY — We’re all online.
We share pictures, videos, our thoughts and if we’re not careful, we can unintentionally share our personal information with identity thieves.
A study published this week sheds light on how criminals are most likely to steal your identity and best methods of prevention.
While overall identity fraud crimes decreased last year, cyber security analysts say new research shows digital identity theft crimes are on the rise.
“67% of all identity theft fraud victims experience a total digital takeover,” said John Buzzard, lead analyst of fraud and security for Javelin Strategy and Research. “That means if you have 10 or 12 logins to things like Facebook, Pinterest, your bank, your credit card, etc., criminals become basically acquainted with all of your personally identifiable information. They have a lot to work with there.”
Buzzard adds that last year 40 million consumers lost a total of $43 billion to identity theft. People pretending to be you, accessing your accounts and spending your money.
It can all happen through a quick call, text or social media message. One click is all it takes.
“Train yourself to step away from or disconnect from communications from people that you don’t know,” says Buzzard. “It’s those emails and texts and voice calls that you receive or you’re not really sure who you’re dealing with especially if you’re getting a risk or reward. A scary or even a wonderful message, you need to hang up, call your bank, call the individual that the call was about and verify on your own that there is a problem.”
The simple tricks to avoid identity theft: assessing your passwords.
Do you use the same password across all platforms? How complex is it? Changing them occasionally can help.
But the first step is knowing exactly when fraud occurs. The sooner you figure out you’ve been impersonated, the better.
“Find a way to get more in touch with your financial accounts. There is a lot of what I would call passive alerts that consumers can set up to go out to the banking website. There is almost guaranteed going to be an alert set up that will send you a text or an email,” says Buzzard.
The best way to avoid someone pretending to be you: Be two steps ahead of fraudsters.
“if this whole conversation makes you uncomfortable, and you’re one of those sorts of prepare in advance sort of people, then my suggestion would be to invest in some kind of identity protection service that suits you and your family or the people that are under your roof,” says Buzzard. “Don’t wait until you have an issue and then go looking for those types of products.”
Remember, you can help prevent fraud from happening to others. Report anything that seems unusual to your service provider if it’s a suspicious call or text or notify your social media app if you get a dubious message.
This all helps in curbing identity thieves’ reach.