The best defense against any untoward incident happening, are the steps taken personally. The simplest form of identity theft service which is free of cost, is the DIY guidelines. DIY (Do-It-yourself) identity theft prevention steps are mentioned as under:
- While making an online purchase, choose a site that has secured payment facilities.
- If you have online accounts with eBay or Amazon.com remember to change the passwords to such accounts regularly.
- Investigate any and every email from credit card companies, or banks. Identity theft criminals often make use of emails to ask for personal information.
- A PC and internet connection at home should have the latest security software. Having the firewall in place assists the spyware in revealing secret information like name, contact number, credit card numbers, etc.
- Last but not the least keep your credit and debit cards secure and the paperwork related to such instruments should be disposed off efficiently.
If the above guidelines do fail, and you find yourself as a victim of identity theft, you will have to take the help of identity theft protection services. Some are detailed below-
- Attorneys: Special attorneys and legal firms dealing specially with identity theft should be contacted. Free consultation is also available the internet wherein attorneys give their advice online.
- Insurance: Identity theft insurance premiums are probably the lowest and it would be a wise option to choose a home insurance policy or a bank account which has a identity theft insurance as a supplement.
- Calls: This is probably useful only within the few couple of hours of you realizing that your credit/debit card or social security card has been stoled or misplaced. Calling the credit card companies, banks, FTC(Federal Trade Commission), social security administration and even the IRS would be beneficial
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