Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act And Identity Theft Protection

FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act), was put into effect in the United States’ law to help prevent and protect customers from identity theft. Under this law, all citizens of the United States are entitled to a free annual credit report to confirm that the information is accurate, and it also ensures that citizens are treated justly when they are applying for various types of credit including mortgage. This helps with identity theft protection.

Identity theft is a criminal act that is becoming very popular and it occurs when a criminal gains access to someone’s personal information, and uses it to take on the identity of the person whose personal information they stole. Criminal acts that are included in identity theft are: frauds, schemes, scams, mail fraud, misuse of credit cards and SSN, and any other type of abuse or misuse of a person’s identity.

It is not guaranteed that you will never fall victim to identity theft; per contra, there are some steps that you can take to lessen the risk of this happening to you. The following are six steps that you can following in order to minimize the risk of you falling prey to identity theft:

1. Identity theft can happen anywhere at any time and when you least expect it; therefore, you need to carefully manage your personal information.

2. Find out about the security procedures that are in place at institutions such as your doctor’s office, your workplace, and other institutions that may collect your personal information in order to provide a service or complete a business transaction. You need to find out all who have access to your personal information and if the information is handled securely. You also need to find out if that institution will share your personal information with any third parties, and what are their disposal procedures.

3. Only use your social security number (SSN) when it is absolutely necessary, and use it with care. When conducting business transaction, find out if you could use other forms of identification instead of your SSN.

4. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), there is a one out of ten chance that a person will become the victim of identity theft. Therefore, if you find that you are a victim, you should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission immediately. The FTC also has a database that contains all reported identity theft cases, which law enforcement agencies use for investigations.

5. Never leave home with all you credit and debit cards, and all forms of identification. You should only travel with the cards you need, and leave the extra ones in a safe place.

6. Never give out your personal information via the Internet, mail or telephone, unless you are absolutely sure that you can trust the party that you are giving the information to.

Using companies such as Identity Hawk are perfect way to help you protect your information from unscrupulous individuals.

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