Identity Theft

In this digital age, there is extensive usage of technology. It comes with its own advantages and challenges too.

Identity theft is one such issue.

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information without your permission to commit fraud.

Source: HDFC Bank mailer

People may misuse our name or other identification details and pretend to be us.

They may clone our credit or debit card and make transactions in our name. Or it may be a simple case of stealing our name and claiming our reward.

Some years ago, this writer had won a prize in an online contest. The brand had announced the names of the winners on Twitter. It is always great to find one's name in the list of winners. I learned of the win a few days later. When I contacted the brand and sent my details via DM as had been specified by them, they said that they had already sent me my prize! I tried reasoning with them that how could they have sent when I had not contacted them earlier!

I realised that someone else had pretended to be me and claimed my prize from them.

I remembered the above incident seeing the email about "Identity Theft" that my bank has sent me today.

We need to be very careful as cyber frauds are alarmingly increasing in number and frequency.

It is said- "Prevention is better than the cure."

Staying safe and protecting our hard-earned wealth from cyber criminals is our responsibility.

To prevent such identity frauds and being victims of cyber crimes and frauds, here are the safety tips the bank suggests:

To shield yourself from these identity frauds, follow these safety tips:

Be careful about sharing any personal information online, especially on social media.

Safely discard any unwanted documents that contain personal data, such as expired ID proofs or credit cards.

Don't click on unknown links; always verify the source.

Use unique, hard-to-guess passwords and enable two-factor authentication.

Regularly review bank and credit card statements for any unusual activity.

Security is mutual commitment. Stay vigilant. What do you feel? Do you take care of the above? Please share your comments below.