15.5: CONTROL AND PREVENTION
- Page ID
- 67714
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Personal Protection
For most types of identity fraud, the best defense for preventing financial ID theft is awareness. Common sense and deliberate actions can go a long way when it comes to protecting one's identity, but additional actions can always be taken to minimize risk. A few common ways to do this are:
- Keeping a record of account numbers and contact information for each piece of identity in the event they’re stolen. This record should be stored separately and in a safe place.
- Retrieving mail promptly. A full mailbox provides thieves access to account numbers and other personal data.
- Being wary of any promotional offers asking for personal information.
- Regularly reviewing credit reports and requesting them for free annually.
- Avoiding simple or common passwords such as date of birth, phone number, or children’s names or birthdays (AllClear, 2004).
Laws Regarding Identity Theft
Identity theft became an official federal crime in the United States in 1998 when Congress passed the Identity Theft Assumption Deterrence Act. This act helped deal with the rapid increase in identity theft and the expansion of the use of the Internet and technology as a method to defraud innocent victims (Mathews, 2013). Identity theft legally became a crime and provided penalties for individuals who either committed or attempted to commit identity theft.
Since then there have been several important laws established by federal institutions in order to combat ID theft nationwide. The Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA) and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) are two of the most common policies which are often cited in connection with data protection and identity theft issues. However, these statutes are getting outdated and are not particularly helpful to identity theft victims. According to Mathews (2013), it is clear the federal government acknowledges the growing presence of identity theft, yet it is unclear if the actions taken will be enough to quell this crime's rising popularity.
Conclusion
Identity theft is a matter of risk vs. reward. One should balance the risk of having his or her personal identity stolen with the reward of being able to instantaneously access his or her personal information. One should not necessarily fear new technologies, but be wary of them. If a product requires personal information and has prompts only one security question for a forgotten password, it may not be trustworthy.