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