Places where identity thieves set their traps

Each year, there are about 10 million people in the US who are victims of identity theft. You sure don’t want to be one of them. Identity thieves capture their prey from many places. If you know some of their tactics, you will be able to protect your identity in a better way. Beware of the dangers lurking in the following locations. Here goes the list –

1. ATM locations: Some thieves may target ATM locations to capture your bank card PIN numbers. This is particularly possible in a shopping center. They may be behind you watching your actions very carefully. Once you press your PIN number, they will remember it. Once you finish your work and leave the machine, someone will try to collect your wallet. By the time you realize the wallet is missing, they’ll be trying all your cards on other machines to get the most cash out. Many people assign the same pin number to all of their cards. This is a very dangerous practice and crooks get an instant lottery once they get hold of your wallet.

It is good to avoid ATMs in shopping malls.

2. Restaurant parking lots – Here the thieves work hand-in-hand with a waiter inside the restaurant. The waiter will remove your card for processing. At that point, he will swipe the card twice: first to process your payment and second to read your card details. These details will then be handed over to the thieves waiting outside and with these details, your cards will be emptied in no time.

It is advisable to make payments in cash at restaurants. If you have no other choice, you must object to the practice of withdrawing your card. Instead, you can go to the counter and watch the processing carefully.

3. Social networking sites: The crooks can easily access the details from many social networking sites. If your email address is open for all to see, they can guess your password from the other details that are available on the route page. Posting unnecessary information like your workplace details or your family members details will also create serious problems for you as crooks get clues from there.

There is nothing wrong with browsing social networking sites. However, you should be careful when providing details as they will be available to the public. Your friends know your details anyway. So try to give only those details that are harmless.

4. Your workplace – This is the most lucrative area for identity thieves, as this source offers the most information. They may bribe a cleaning contractor or a former employee or even an existing employee to get the details of others. This is the place where details like your social security number, your retirement details, details about your health insurance coverage, and your bank details are readily available.

You should always talk to your human resources department about the precautions they are taking to protect your data. Always use a strong password to access your computer in the workplace so that other people cannot log in to it.

5. Dumpsters: Many thieves lurk behind hospitals, apartment buildings, and corporate offices. They try to search for sensitive financial information from the trash. If they find lucrative documents like pre-approved credit card offers, insurance documents, pay stubs, or bank statements, they can ruin people’s financial lives.

It is always a best practice to shred all papers that are going to be thrown away. Never throw away important papers like your bank statements or pay stubs. They are useful for tax purposes.

6. Service stations: Card readers are sometimes installed in the credit card slots of stations. These readers are hard to find and scammers will be able to take details from hundreds of cards at once. Sometimes thieves target a particular gas pump for this purpose.

You should carefully look at the gas station card slot before inserting your card. If you smell something suspicious, talk to the operator.

7. Mailboxes: everything related to your life keeps coming to the mailboxes. Bank statements, utility bills, credit card statements, medical advice, mortgage correspondence, and many other sensitive documents can be found in your mailbox.

You must lock your mailbox and store your keys with a limited number of people. While you’re on vacation, you should ask your friends or neighbors to pick up the mail on your behalf. You must remove the mail from the box within a short time of its delivery.

8. Your home computer: Thieves may not stay in your residential area, but they will hack into your computer from outside. Sometimes people with wireless laptops roam residential streets and try to locate homes or businesses over wireless connections without encrypted servers. Once they manage to locate one, they can gain access to the information stored on that server. If you pay your bills online or perform any financial transactions over the network, your information may be removed without your knowledge.

Always use firewalls and encryption software on your personal computers. This will protect your identity.

9. Gym parking lots: When people go to a gym, they don’t want to carry their wallet inside. Instead, they will store it in the glove compartment of the car. Thieves lurking in gym parking lots can easily locate such people. These people will not go out for at least an hour. So they can take out the wallet and get all the strategic information. This is done especially in the early hours of the morning in the last hours of the night. They can keep everything intact so that the car owner does not notice such an occurrence.

Always make sure you have your wallet inside the gym with you. Lockers may be available in the gym where you can safely store your wallet.

No one is excluded from the clutches of identity thieves. Therefore, it is very important that you protect your identity to save your financial life.