Tjx Identity Theft Ring Busted
This year, CNN reported on the largest case of identity theft in the country. According to the network, more than 100million credit card numbers were stolen by an identity theft ring that hacked into the computer networks of nine national retail chains, including Barnes & Noble, TJX Cos, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and OfficeMax.
It is highly recommended that you to take a few simple steps to protect yourself from this crime, which affects as many as 10 million Americans each year, costing billions of dollars and countless hours to correct the problems it creates.
In most States, by law, when a data breach occurs, a company is required to send a letter to notify customers of their possible exposure, said Steve Ely, a divisional president for credit monitoring company Equifax Inc. In the article from CNN, Ely said companies often downplay the problem to minimize damage to their reputation. “Ninety-nine percent of the time breach letters look like a piece of junk mail, and people throw them away.”
And indictments like those announced in August aren’t likely to prevent your data from getting into the hands of other criminals, warned Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit in San Diego.
“Even though they may have found the individuals,” said Stephens, “that is no guarantee that that information is not out there and available to people to use for fraudulent purchases.”
We’ve all heard these warnings before:. Carry as few credit cards as possible, and leave your Social Security card at home. Never give out personal information by phone, mail or on the Internet unless you initiated the exchange and are clear who you are dealing with. Use a cross cut shredder to shred all private information.
Other important steps include never leave outgoing mail in your mailbox and remove your incoming mail as soon as you can; shredding or tearing up any identifying information before discarding them. Also make sure online purchases are from secure sites, one good sign is that the address bar turns green in the most recent versions of Web browsers.
Also, you should limit or eliminate the use of debit or check cards linked to bank accounts, especially online. Don’t forget that you should also regularly monitor your credit report. You can do this by ordering your free credit report each year but for even better protection could include daily monitoring through a credit report monitoring service.
Federal law forced each of the three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and Transunion, to provide consumers with one free credit report each year. The reports can be obtained at http://www.annualcreditreport.com or by certified mail or phone. Identity theft experts recommend rotating requests among the three bureaus, obtaining a report every four months.
If you are serious about protecting yourself you may want to, consider paying for a credit protection service. Learn what these companies have to offer and how they protect you from identity theft.
Keep in mind though that not all service are created equally. One of the best identity protection services around is TrustedID. How good are they, well, it is like you have your own private security guard on duty 24/7 to protect your credit and your identity.