Identity Theft is a huge hazard to face for anyone because it basically is a form of intrusion on your life. Imagine your neighbour having luxury items delivered to their home but for you to find out months later the money they used and identity was in fact yours.
You see with this horrible form of fraud you’re going to either be unlucky and have many thousands taken out of your account or you’re going to be lucky and discover the situation before it escalates further.
When you receive documents through the post you automatically should put the envelopes with addresses on them or anything regarding you into a bin ready to shred. The idea behind shredding is that the pieces of paper which have been shredded are so tiny many people will not even attempt to use the pieces to patch back up.
Failure to shred items is like handing your house keys to a burglar and letting them have a map of the house and where special items are because this is how identity can be stolen.
Some people believe shredders do not help but I have found them a good item because the pieces of paper can then be used for other things such as for animal bedding so again no one will attempt to use those shreds of paper.
Another thing to remember is that when you get important documents through the post such as bank statements and other types of bills you should never leave them around in front of anyone and this does include friends and family.
You have to remember also that if you work somewhere and leave behind valuables such as wallets or purses that people can intrude and invade your privacy and locate information and this can be the bank number on a card or even a pin number if you wrote it down somewhere.
I have always believed you take the essentials with you and nothing more. If you do not need a credit card that day then leave it at home in a secure location as this will stop anyone taking your items.
People sometimes get alerted to theft by accident and I have had this happen to me a few times and it was by chance that I noticed this happening. Someone had actually tried to buy a kitchen from a department store and it would have cost me a fortune but my bank alerted me that this huge payment was heading out and they stopped the card payment immediately.
Not all people are that fortunate so besides the shredding of the documents with your name on and making sure all items are hidden and locked away you should also keep an eye on the banking situation. I have done internet banking before and never had trouble but you just never know in the modern age what people can do so I always like to do banking over the telephone that way I feel more trust is involved. If you find payments going out which you did not do then make sure you alert the nearest bank you are with to stop the card immediately.
Your card contains all the numbers people need to make payments to other people and this is serious so you have to react as quickly as possible.
People who steal your identity can take out products in your name, steal credit ratings and even ruin your own live by giving you loans for which you never asked for. If you fail to destroy documents by shredding them and keeping an eye on your own finances within weeks you will notice a problem and sometimes it is too late.
All across the world this problem is continuing to grow and you never know the outcome of the cases you have complained about which is not helpful and it makes you more stressed out.
My advice is to be vigilant and careful and if you lose anything important stop the card payments immediately. If you get mail from companies you have never seen before ring them up because if someone has put a product in your name sometimes you disregard this mail as junk and in fact it could be hugely beneficial to you in the long run.
If people keep an eye on all there items and keep control of what is important to them this situation can slowly disappear but if you fail and feel the problems are not likely to happen to you then watch this space as it will occur at some point.