Every year, there are about 10 million people in U.S. who are victims of identity theft. You certainly don't want to be one of them. The identity thieves catch their prey from many places. If you know some of their tactics, you will be able to protect your identity in a better way. Beware of the dangers lurking around the following places. Here goes the list -
1. Locations of ATM machines - Some thieves may be targeting ATM locations to capture PIN numbers of your bank cards. This is possible particularly in a shopping mall. They may be behind you watching your actions very carefully. Once you press your pin number, they will remember it. Once you finish your work and leave the machine, someone will try to pick up your wallet. By the time you realize the loss of wallet, they will be trying all your cards on other machines for taking out maximum cash. Many people assign the same pin number to all their cards. This is a very dangerous practice and thieves get instant lottery once they get hold of your wallet.
Human Resource Software
It is good to avoid ATM machines from shopping malls.
2. Parking lots of restaurants - Here the thieves work hand in hand with a waiter inside the restaurant. The waiter will take away your card for processing. At that time he will swipe the card twice - first for processing your payment and second for skimming your card details. Then these details will be handed over to be thieves waiting outside and with these details your cards will be emptied in no time.
It is advisable to make cash payments at restaurants. If you have no choice, you should object to the practice of taking your card away. Instead, you can go to the counter and watch the processing carefully.
3. Social networking sites - Details are easily available to thieves from many social networking sites. If your e-mail address is open for everyone to view, they may guess the password from the other details which are available on the way page. Posting of unnecessary information like your workplace details or details of your family members will also create serious problems for you as the thieves get clues from there.
There is no harm in surfing social networking sites. However you should be careful in providing details as they will be available to the public. Your friends know your details anyway. So try to give only those details which are harmless.
4. Your workplace - This is the most lucrative area for identity thieves as maximum information is available from this source. They may bribe a cleaning contractor or a former employee or even an existing employee to get the details of others. This is the place where the details like your social security number, your retirement details, details about your medical insurance cover and your bank details are easily available.
You should always discuss with the human resource department about the precautions they are taking to protect your details. Always use a strong password to access your computer at workplace so that other people will not be able to log on to it.
5. Dumpsters - Many thieves lurk behind hospitals, apartment buildings and corporate offices. They try to search sensitive financial information from the garbage. If they find lucrative documents like pre-approved credit card offers, insurance papers, salary slips or bank statements, they can ruin financial life of people.
It is always a better practice to shred all the papers which are to be thrown away. Never throw away important papers like your bank statements or salary slips. They are useful for tax purposes.
6. Gas stations - Sometimes card readers are installed on the credit card slots of the stations. These readers are hard to find and fraudsters will be able to take details of hundreds of cards at a time. Sometimes a particular gas pump is targeted by the thieves for this purpose.
You need to look at the card slot of the gas station carefully before inserting your card. If you smell something doubtful, speak to the operator.
7. Mailboxes - Everything relating to your life keeps on coming in the mailboxes. Bank statements, utility bills, credit card statements, medical advices, mortgage correspondence and a lot of other sensitive documents could be found from your mailbox.
You should lock your mailbox and keep the keys with limited number of people. While on vacation, you should request your friends or neighbors to collect mail on your behalf. You should take out mail from the box within a short time of its delivery.
8. Your home Computer - Thieves may not keep their feet in your residential area but they will hack your computer from outside. Sometimes people with wireless laptops wonder around the residential streets and try to locate homes or businesses using wireless connections without encrypted servers. Once they are successful in locating one, they can get access to the information stored on that server. If you are making payments of your bills online or making some financial transactions over the net, your information can be taken away without your knowledge.
Always use firewalls and encryption software on your personal computers. This will shield your identity.
9. Parking lots of gyms - When people go to a gym, they don't want to take their wallet inside. Instead, they will keep it in the glove box of the car. Thieves lurking around parking lots of gyms can easily locate such people. These people will not come out at least for an hour. So they can take out the wallet and get all strategic information. This is done especially in early mornings on late evenings. They can keep everything intact so that the car owner will not be aware of any such incidence.
Always make a point to take your wallet inside the gym with you. There may be lockers available at the gym where you can keep your wallet safely.
No one is excluded from the clutches of identity thieves. So it is very important for you to protect your identity to save your financial life.
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