Credit & Identity Theft Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Credit & Identity Theft - Research Paper Example You should know all of your payment due dates. Make a list of all your regular due dates and if a bill doesn’t show up, look into it right away. You should always review your medical insurance claims and statements. Medical costs are so high that it would only take one or two fraudulent claims to leave you owing thousands of dollars for treatments someone else received. Another way to protect yourself is to invest in a paper shredder. There is just so much information on so many different bills and statements that can easily fall into the wrong hands. Before you throw away anything with any personal information on it, shred it! Another good idea to take advantage of the three free credit reports that you can access every year. You can space them apart so that you can review a credit report every 4 months. Not only is it important to keep someone from accessing your identity or your credit but it’s just as important that you become aware of it right away. The longer it goes undetected, the longer it will take you to repair your name, your identity and your credit. It’s important to keep in mind that this is a global problem. Last year I got a phone call from my credit card company asking if I had made two charges totally about $1000 in France. They told me that the two charges were actually â€Å"swipes† at two stores in Paris, France which means that someone had actually made up a fake credit card with my credit card number on it and passed it through a credit card machine. Even though they didn’t allow the two charges I felt violated that somehow somebody had gotten my credit card information. Mine was a small case. Some people have been financially ruined with their bank accounts emptied; credit cards â€Å"maxed† out, home and car loans initiated without the victim’s knowledge until it was too late. As I stated earlier, if your identity is stolen it is important that you find out as quickly as