Identity theft can happen to anyone. Since more people are going online to shop, bank, file taxes, etc., there’s an increased risk of savvy thieves stealing the personal information of millions of consumers. Even if you’re careful, a thief may be able to attain your information by hacking into the systems of larger businesses, as millions of people learned last year with the Equifax data breach. Stolen information allows thieves to open bank accounts and lines of credit, open new credit cards, get a driver’s license in your name, file taxes to steal your tax refund and more. What can you do if you find out your information has been compromised?
The rise of data breaches
The Equifax data breach in 2017 showed that even if you’re vigilant about protecting your personal information, it may still be compromised. In this breach, hackers stole information from 143 million Americans, including people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers, as well as the credit card numbers of 209,000 people. Thieves were also able to gain access to information from 182,000 individuals who filed credit disputes with Equifax prior to the breach.
Even email providers aren’t safe from data breaches. It’s recently come to light that Yahoo’s 2013
breach, in which names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords and security questions were stolen, impacted all of its three billion users.
What to do if you’re the victim of a data breach:
As we’ve seen, you may not know you’re the victim of a breach until you hear about it on the news. The first thing you should do if you suspect you’re a victim is to check all of your credit reports—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion—by getting a free credit report at annualcreditreport.com. If you’ve already accessed your credit report this year, you may have to pay a fee.
Next, monitor your credit card and bank accounts for unauthorized activity and review each charge carefully. If you find or suspect you’re a victim of fraudulent activity, put a freeze on your credit file.
You may also place a fraud alert on your credit file to warn creditors that your identity was stolen.
Additionally, file your taxes early to prevent a scammer from filing for you and collecting your refund.
What to do if your information has been stolen:
Although credit card microchips have curtailed counterfeiting, thieves have become focused on opening new accounts with stolen information. More than $16 billion was stolen from 15.4 million American consumers in 2016. Identity thieves have stolen more than $107 billion since 2010. If you learn your information has been compromised, here are some steps to take to regain control of your information. In every situation, you’ll want to continue to check your credit report and report any additional unauthorized activity.
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