According to the FBI, identity theft is when someone uses your identity, your personal information pass it off as their own, committing fraud and usually to gain financially. The most common case of identity fraud involved the use of credit card, this is when someone makes use of a credit card, whether an individuals or a company’s card, to make purchases in stores or online. Everyone is a potential victim, it can be a single individual or an entire database of personal information and without credit protection identity theft is inevitable.

Credit identity theft is a type of identity crime where a person uses your credit for his own fraudulent purposes and when this happens, you are the one who gets the brunt of the illegal activity. If you do not protect yourself, you will find yourself in the middle of a messy financial problem.  So you should protect your identity more so if you’re fond of using credit cards, with credit protection identity theft can easily be stopped. You can halt activities of identity theft if you have protected yourself well.

Now, even if we have done our duty and gotten credit protection identity theft can still happen if a company or business we transact with did not protect their database of personal client information. These thieves can also gain access to our personal information from company databases if that company did not invest in an identity protection program. So you should be aware of companies that do not secure their databases.

Identity theft does not only include credit card frauds but it can include stolen social security numbers, stolen bank checks, and the use of another individual’s documents for acts of espionage and terrorism as well as immigration purposes.  Now, with cooperation from the individuals or the consumers and the industry it can be easier to stop identity theft. If we invest in credit protection identity theft can be stopped once and for all.

Have you been a victim of identity theft, or are you afraid to become one? Maybe it’s because you spend majority of your life online. You shop, bank, watch movies, listen to music, doing most everything online. It is said that 50% of identity theft happens via the internet and it’s done mostly thru phishing e-mails scams, but there are a lot of ways you can get phishing protection. You can download free software if you don’t trust your browsers. But many of the latest browsers come with their own phishing protection and they are aware of the threat and come up with solutions to help protect their consumers.

However should you be victimized. Here are 3 steps to point you in the right direction.

1.    You can call any of the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax or TransUnion. Do this so they can flag your credit documents, this way creditors are aware of your situation and any credit applied under your name will have to be verified. You can also work with them to work out which entries on your credit files are fraudulent and let creditors know that those entries are disputed. This will help you minimize damage to your credit.

2.    Call local authorities. File a police report and supply all necessary documents and information including disputed accounts. This will help prove you are a victim of identity theft.

3.    And lastly call the FTC, they will not investigate your case but they will help point you in the right direction and you can file a fraud affidavit with them as well.

Now, are you done yet? Of course not, now that you let the authorities know about your situation and you’re on your way to having everything fixed. Now is not the time to sit. You should take steps to ensure that this will not happen again. First ensure that your personal information is safe and secure, tear up any documents you don’t need and throw them in separate trash bins.

Since you do spend time online ensure that your computer has the latest version of your anti-virus software, malware protection programs and that your firewall is turned on. By now you are aware of the dangers of phishing, don’t be a victim of phishing scams, protect yourself and ensure that your browser’s phishing protection is activated or if you’re not sure it may be a good idea to invest in a separate phishing protection software.