| The crime of identity theft continues to rise, according | | | | orders for items online. |
| to recent reports. One interesting aspect of those | | | | Current statistics indicate that more than 9 million |
| reports is that the crime is not limited to the major | | | | Americans have their identities stolen each year. It is a |
| metropolitan areas, but seems to be equally as | | | | matter of people being careless with their personal |
| rampant in smaller cities and even in rural areas, and in | | | | information, and allowing access to enough of their |
| fact, identity theft seems to be increasing in rural areas | | | | personal information where someone could open a |
| at rates faster than the metropolitan areas. | | | | new credit card account or order merchandise online |
| A California company that specializes in analyzing the | | | | with their identity. If the victim of this identity theft does |
| crime of identity theft for both consumers and | | | | not discover it and report it in a timely manner, it will |
| businesses analyzed fraud cases throughout the | | | | likely cost the victim weeks and months of time and |
| United States last year by zip codes to see if there | | | | effort, as well as mountains of forms, to get the |
| were any conclusions that could be drawn from the | | | | problem straightened out. |
| analysis. While as expected, large metropolitan areas | | | | The best way to periodically determine whether you |
| continued to have the highest number of reported | | | | may be a victim of identity theft is to check your credit |
| cases, it was also found that the rate of increase was | | | | reports and carefully review monthly bank statements. |
| higher in rural areas, particularly in North Dakota and | | | | Identity theft is the top consumer-fraud complaint |
| Montana. | | | | reported to the FTC. |
| In fact, six Montana cities made the top ten list of | | | | As a matter of the habits you need to develop to |
| identity theft "hot spots", which is where authorities | | | | keep your personal information safe, below are some |
| have determined that the crime of identity theft | | | | things that you should be doing: |
| increased by the largest margins last year. In particular, | | | | - Protect your Social Security number. Your employer |
| the Montana cities of Missoula, Whitefish, Lolo, Hamilton | | | | and your bank need to know this number, but very |
| and Big Fork were named in the report. | | | | few other places, and NEVER your grocery store or |
| Authorities are thinking that perhaps this may indicate | | | | convenience store. |
| the formation of existence of an identity theft ring in | | | | - Be careful with your trash. Identity thieves are happy |
| these areas, as the evidence presented for this | | | | to go dumpster-diving to retrieve stuff you've thrown |
| appears quite strong. Local authorities think that the | | | | away that contains your personal information. Shred |
| thieves may have obtained a list of identities in | | | | those documents, even with an inexpensive shredder |
| Bozeman last July and then moved their operations to | | | | at some place like Best Buy or Office Depot. |
| Missoula. | | | | - Apply the logic test when online. Would your bank |
| As far as other rural areas that also appeared on the | | | | REALLY send you an email asking you to click here to |
| hot list, that would include areas such as Bismarck, | | | | enter personal information online for verification? No |
| Grand Forks, and Fargo in North Dakota, and | | | | they would not or if they do, it's time to find another |
| Springfield Illinois. | | | | bank. |
| In these cases, the identity theft usually begins with a | | | | - Don't pick passwords that any motivated 12 year old |
| local resident calling in to complain about a new credit | | | | could guess. Make your passwords a combination of |
| card account opened in their name without their | | | | upper and lower case letters with some numbers |
| knowledge. Other people reported somebody opening | | | | thrown in, and do not use the same password for all |
| a new cellular phone account in their name, or placing | | | | your accounts. |