identity theft

What’s worse: Nude pix or ID theft?

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th-1A new survey from MasterCard includes what sounds like a bizarre round of “Would You Rather…” More than half (55 percent) of respondents say they’d rather have naked photos of themselves leaked online than have their financial info stolen or compromised.

So would I.

Nekkid pictures would be pretty darned embarrassing for a while, but identity theft is for-evah.

Folks would have to go looking for photos of you in the altogether, but apparently ID thieves sell and re-sell their ill-gotten info. You get one case of fraud snuffed out and another one pops up across town, or across the country.

 

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How to make an ID thief’s day.

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th-1Recently at the recycling center I found a few Box Tops For Education coupons in the mixed-paper bin. As I walked back toward my vehicle a woman rolled down her window and said, “Why are you going through the garbage?”

I told her I was looking for Box Tops For Education for my nephews’ schools. Also that I prefer to think of it as mixed paper.

The woman frowned. “Well, I don’t like it. Some of the stuff we throw in there is kind of sensitive. Private.”

Um. What?

It took me a couple of seconds to form a coherent response. “You should be shredding that stuff! If you throw personal information away without cutting it up you could have your identity stolen.”

She sniffed audibly, then drove off.

Readers: Do you ever throw away things like bank or credit card statements or health insurance info? If so, please stop it. Right now.

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How secure is your identity?

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th-1Here’s a startling stat: Nearly one in three persons surveyed by Experian believe they’re not at risk of identity theft because “thieves only want wealthy people’s identities.”

Wrong. It’s not how much money you make, but rather how much cybercrooks could make from you. 

“Identity thieves use data as their commodity, selling it to the highest bidder or for personal gain, so it’s important for consumers to protect their personal information,” says Becky Frost, senior manager of consumer education for Experian’s ProtectMyID.

Put another way: My long-unemployed mother was a victim of identity theft, and another relative who is self-employed had to get a credit freeze after someone tried opening credit cards in his name.

Both cases seem to have stemmed from credit-card applications filched from mailboxes. The bigger risk these days is cybercrime, if the Experian survey is any indication. 

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Got a credit card? Get another one.

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th-1In the past month or so I’ve had four credit cards compromised. Notice of the latest breach came via e-mail this morning: Some thieving bastard(s) purchased hundreds of dollars’ worth of stuff from Walmart.com and then tried to spend hundreds more at a different online company.

The other three credit cards weren’t part of the latest Target breach, in which as many as 40 million people had their data stolen. But that theft should help convince people to come around to my way of thinking: that you need at least two credit cards. Suppose you were on vacation or traveling on business and found your plastic didn’t work?

Which is exactly what happened to me: I’m currently in Phoenix, about to celebrate Christmas with my daughter and son-in-law. The card that got hacked is now kaput. What if I wanted to go shopping, or needed to pay for a van ride back to the airport?

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