What are the best methods a person can use to protect himself/herself from identity theft?

I decided to search for identity theft and found numerous articles and books on it, the one that really caught my eye is: “Identity Theft and the Challenges of Caring for Your Virtual Self” by Jenifer Whitson. I was shocked by what I found out.

We’ve all heard that everyone should try to make themselves a hard target, especially online. Don’t give out personnel information over unsecure media, don’t reply to and give out credit card information via e-mail, etc. What I didn’t know until after reading this article is that if you are a victim of identity theft it seems that you are basically guilty until proven innocent unlike other crimes. “Victims are often treated with suspicion and must do considerable work to prove their innocence.” (Whitson, 2009, p. 3) This is especially true when you are “busted” committing a crime (or someone impersonating you when committing a crime). You, the victim, have to go to the nearest police station and file a report and that’s the easy part; the hard part is you may have to file many more documents “that on average can take up to 40 hours to complete…and the victim is expected to provide appropriate documentary details in prescribed forms and within a specified timeline to prove their victimization.” (Whitson, 2009, p. 3) Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun for the victim, especially since the victim didn’t do anything wrong but they have to fix the mess that someone else made so they can clear their name and get their credit fixed.

It’s really scary to think that your whole life can change in no time yet it can take years to recover from something like this. I hope I never have to experience that and I’ve learned some good tips from reading this article to help better protect myself, tips like “ lock your mailbox, shred everything from bills to magazines with mailing address on them, and getting credit reports every 6 months to keep an eye on your credit score.” (Whitson, 2009, p. 2)

Works Cited

Whitson, J. (2009). Identity Theft and The Challenges of Caring for Your Virtual Self.