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Ensure your private information is safeguarded.
Identity theft can affect anyone at any time, often with little warning. The recent National Public Data Breach underscores the widespread nature of this threat. To safeguard your private and sensitive information from misuse, it is crucial to adopt proactive measures. Protecting your personal data helps prevent the accumulationof debt and fraudulent accounts and preserves your credit score and overall financial reputation.
Potential risks of identity theft
Identity theft is a threat affecting many individuals more frequently than one may anticipate. Although mostcorporations work proactively to safeguard your personal information, entering your email address or phonenumber into various websites or services can expose you to potential breaches. When this information iscompromised, criminals may exploit it to impersonate you, potentially leading to the theft of funds and privateinformation.
Criminals employ various tactics to steal your information, which can include:
• Direct Attacks: These involve targeting individuals through specific channels such as:
- Phishing: Fraudulent emails designed to deceive recipients into revealing sensitive information
- Smishing: Text messages that attempt to extract personal data and financial details
- Vishing: Voice calls aimed at manipulating individuals into divulging private information
- Direct Mail: Traditional mail from postal services used to solicit sensitive information
With the information gained from these direct attacks, criminals may impersonate you to obtain money or accessprivate data.
• Third-Party Attacks: Criminals may also target organizations that store users' personal information.These attacks can often involve the same methods mentioned above, aimed at corporations thatmanage sensitive data or financial resources. The goal is to exploit weaknesses within theseorganizations to access private information.
Indications that your information may have been compromised include receiving unexplained bills either inyour name or someone else’s, unfamiliar inquiries or credit accounts on your credit report that you did notinitiate and being alerted by your bank about fraudulent activity on your account.
How to combat being a victim of identity theft.
To protect yourself, it is crucial to avoid engaging in any endeavors that might compromise yourinformation.
- Refrain from clicking on links in messages from unknown senders and avoid entering personal orfinancial information on unfamiliar websites or over the phone.
- Regularly update your passwords to enhance security.
- Do not save your credit card information on third-party websites.
- Be cautious about the companies you share your private information with.
These practices will help safeguard your personal data and reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
How IDShield can help:
IDShield provides identity protection with top-tier services, including personal data monitoring, dark websurveillance, Social Security number tracking, and credit monitoring. In the case of identity theft, ourlicensed private investigators will provide personalized support to restore your identity and mitigate damage.
If you’re already enrolled, please get in touch with our identity theftspecialists about any privacy concerns.
If you still need to enroll, please consider doing so at your next opportunity.