Identity Thief

Overview
Identity theft, as fixed by the Department of Justice, involves holding and using someone's personal information for fraudulent uses. The greatest cause for identity theft is financial profit. A thief can use your credit card number to buy expensive goods. A thief could also use your identity to apply for new credit cards, loans, and chores. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing Internet crimes. Today more than ever, it is important to protect your personal data. Hold on your social security number, passport number, credit card details, and driver's license number private. Be careful where you partake in your birthday, address, phone number, and other personal data. A thief will falsify credit applications, passport applications, and health books. It is very difficult to reverse the damage from identity theft - It could take years off your life. Meanwhile, you'll have difficulty applying for credit, loans, and chores. You may not be capable to recoup the money that you misplace. All people of any age are at risk for identity thievery. In whatever instance, the highest occurrences tend to be among college-aged people who tend to be in places that take them to share data. Sharing living spaces and changing jobs frequently also puts you at risk for identity thievery.

How to protect yourself against it
Take steps to protect yourself from identity theft. Monitor your online accounts closely. When using shared computers see that you fully exit websites and applications, clear tracking cookies, and completely log off the computer. If you own a laptop, use locking mechanisms like passwords or fingerprint locks to prevent thieves from accessing your data. When required for personal information online, check that the site is safe. Web sites have a security certificate that is displayed as a yellow lock symbol located at the bottom right hand corner of the page. Besides, most secure websites have the alphabetic character "s" at the closing of the http portion of the URL. Use phishing filters, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware software to keep harmful and intrusive software off your data processor.