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your online accounts secure identity
theft is one of the fastest growing
digital crimes in the world with a 2017
survey showing that 6.6 4 percent of
consumers had become victims of identity
fraud at least once in their life or
about 1 in 15 people with hackers being
able to impersonate you digitally having
your identity stolen can mean everything
from a ruined credit score to possibly
warrant for your arrest so how does one
protect themselves in this evermore
digital world what can you be on the
lookout for as you use the internet or
go about your daily life hello and
welcome to another episode of the
infographics show today we're taking a
look at how hackers can steal your
identity between 2017 and 2016 identity
theft increased by 1 million from
fifteen point seven million victims to
sixteen point seven million victims here
in the US alone statistics say that
identity theft occurs every two seconds
and a third of the time it's not even an
individual's fault in 2017 there were
1579 data breaches which exposed 179
million personal records from companies
identity theft is an insidious crime to
combat because the repercussions often
don't happen immediately it can take
months for the effects to be noticed and
some people don't find out for years
with ID theft so prevalent just what
should you be on the lookout for then
public Wi-Fi in use cyber thieves will
often target computers using free and
open public Wi-Fi they'll look for
low-power electronic signals from your
computer or smartphone which can expose
your personal information and password
although it requires a thief to be
physically near a device if the device
isn't actively connected to the Wi-Fi
experts warned that you should be aware
of suspicious people around you in
public settings such as a coffee shop or
library with free Wi-Fi as thieves will
often use briefcases with hidden
antennas and microphones hidden beneath
tables to pick up acoustic emissions
work jet if like millions of Americans
you work a digital job or work from home
and use an online chat service to
coordinate with your employer
be wary of what details you share online
in unsecured chat channels chat apps
such as slack have been targeted
recently an experienced security
breaches which exposed some of the
users personal information to would-be
thieves experts suggest that you ensure
any group chat app that you use for work
is one that is end and encrypted with
messages readable only on the senders
and recipients devices if your company's
chat service isn't secure it's best to
make sure you consider changing chat
platforms or at the very least ensure
that you never share sensitive
information over email or chat customer
loyalty accounts with brick-and-mortar
retailers and online shopping platforms
both offering customer loyalty accounts
thieves have long been drawn to these
reward programs to glean personal
information retailers have reported an
increase in attempts to gain
unauthorized access to reward accounts
which hold customers sensitive personal
information experts recommend that you
share as little information as possible
when opening a rewards or customer
loyalty account instead of providing
every piece of information requested and
as always a strong password is key make
sure you update your passwords regularly
don't use the same password multiple
places and use a complex hard to guess
password frequent fliers a version of
customer loyalty program for jet-setters
hackers have targeted frequent flyer
miles programs to both gather personal
information and even to book themselves
free flights and upgrades again the
responsibility for securing these
accounts Falls primarily on the
companies themselves but experts
recommend that you monitor any frequent
flyer account regularly and use complex
passwords that you change frequently to
protect access identity theft is
frustrating enough to deal with already
you don't want to be paying for your
thief's free vacation to the Bahamas on
top of it death and taxes every year
Americans have to do their taxes and
file returns and for identity thieves
tax season is their own perverted form
of Christmas these will often send out
fake emails from accounts that look
almost like a real professional Tax
Service tricking people into providing
personal information that they would
normally share with their real tax
service but if that doesn't work they'll
simply call you directly and pretend to
be a reputable tax companies such as H&R
Block even more brazenly thieves will
sometimes impersonate the IRS itself and
threaten you claiming there's an issue
with your taxes and you need to verify
key details before there's legal
troubles experts warn that you should be
on the lookout for phishing emails
during tax season and verify the
identity of any callers claiming to work
for a company or the IRS a legitimate
problem can always be resolved by simply
hanging up with the caller and calling
the company they claim to be from or the
IRS directly stolen wallets this one is
a no-brainer but identity thieves will
sometimes physically mug people a crime
that has been in steep decline
ever since less and less people started
using debit and credit cards and stopped
to actually use in cash but it's not a
wad of dollars thereafter it's your
personal details listed on your driver's
license or any important documents you
carry every day experts recommend that
you limit what you physically carry on
you and never make it a habit to carry
your Social Security card or passport
around with you
snail mail this one probably seems
obvious too but identity thieves will
often target personal mail to glean
details about your life this can include
everything from actual sensitive
information or just enough details about
you that will help them scam you in
other ways a thief can find out your
deep and credit card debt for example by
stealing your billing statements and
then call you pretending to be the
company processing your debt and no
details like your home address monthly
payments and exactly how much debt you
hold all information that can make it
seem like you're speaking to a
legitimate representative experts
suggest that you ensure your mailbox is
secure
a lockbox if possible but always if
anybody calls you claiming to be a
representative of a financial company
you can simply hang up and call the
company back to verify friend fraud most
people will fiercely protect their login
details for any sensitive websites such
as their bank or credit card companies
but barely give any thought to the
passwords they use for their social
media after all what someone gonna do
with your Facebook account other than
maybe post some embarrassing public
posts that you can explain later
well hackers may not be able to steal
your personal information directly by
logging into Facebook but they can and
do fool your friends instead hackers may
contact your friends and family saying
something like you're on vacation abroad
and lost your wallet can you please send
some money right away
this scam is called social engineering
and relies on your loved ones caring
enough about you to try and bail you out
of a difficult situation only for the
money to go into the pockets of your
identity thieves experts suggest that
you hone your BS radar if you receive
messages like this and verify directly
with a person over a non social media
channel that they're really in trouble
or not a simple phone call will let you
know that
most of the time however we personally
recommend you simply have no friends and
if you insist on arguing about politics
with your family every Thanksgiving your
Christmas nobody in your family will
want to help you out of a tough
situation with so many clever hackers
out there your identity has never been
at a greater risk
so in today's dangerous cyber
environment you need help staying secure
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subscription today what other ways can
you think to help protect your identity
what other ways do you know that people
can steal it have you ever had your
identity stolen also be sure to check
out our other show most dangerous
hackers of all time thanks for watching
and as always don't forget to like share
and subscribe see you next time