{"id":772,"date":"2023-04-14T07:50:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T07:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/?p=772"},"modified":"2023-07-14T06:58:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T06:58:45","slug":"how-do-i-check-if-someone-is-using-my-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/guides\/how-do-i-check-if-someone-is-using-my-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do I Check if Someone Is Using My Identity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States, as stated by the country\u2019s relevant authorities. In 2022, the ITRC reported 422 million individuals were affected<\/a> by identity-related crimes, while the FTC received 1.1 million reports of identity fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might be wondering, then: \u201cHow do I check if someone is using my identity?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s more than one way to determine if you\u2019ve been the target of identity fraud, from monitoring your bills and finances to contacting the major credit bureaus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We thoroughly review all warning signs below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you believe someone has stolen your identity and has been using it for cybercriminal activities<\/a>, you should take immediate action. The first thing to do is confirm whether such fraud occurred by taking all of the steps below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best way to check if you\u2019ve been the target of cybercriminals is to review and closely monitor your credit report. Toward that goal, you should immediately contact the country\u2019s major credit bureaus: TransUnion<\/a>, Equifax<\/a>, and Experian<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look for anomalies within your credit files, such as newly-opened lines of credit<\/strong>, inaccurate data on file<\/strong>, credit score changes<\/strong>, and other unknown accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check your financial statements every month for unexplained charges<\/strong>, withdrawals<\/strong>, or other such transactions. If you find any, and your friends and family confirm they have not been using your cards, you must have been the victim of identity theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keeping track of your bills is not just about staying on top of payments but being aware of every expense you have to cover<\/strong> regularly, including your rent, utilities, online subscriptions, TV, phone, and internet payments, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you start receiving new or higher bills<\/strong> or stop getting bill notifications<\/strong>, you should check with the corresponding supplier whether they have made any changes to their policies. If they haven\u2019t, chances are good someone is misusing your identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many premium antivirus providers also develop and offer identity monitoring<\/strong> products. For instance, Bitdefender\u2019s Digital Identity Protection service scans the entire web (public and dark web) for leaks of your personal information. You can track your online information via their real-time dashboard and take action before a breach occurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also contact the IRS to see if other tax returns are filed in your name<\/strong> by someone else and whether or not there\u2019s a record of income from an unknown source.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Stolen personal information is commonly used to commit crimes<\/strong>, so chances are good your name has been reported in connection with illegal activity. Therefore, check with your local police department about obtaining a criminal record search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Victims often find out they\u2019ve been the target of identity theft after being denied a loan or various benefits.<\/strong> Some perpetrators apply for high-risk credit in the victim’s name, which ruins their credit score, or try to get medical care and unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Identity thieves typically gain access to your sensitive data via several methods:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that you know all points of entry, you can protect yourself by practicing good cyber hygiene, shredding essential documents, and wiping the date from old devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To avoid the financial, reputational, and emotional damage caused by identity theft, work towards preventing it from occurring by regularly applying these measures:<\/p>\n\n\n\n While there\u2019s no guarantee you can avoid becoming an identity theft victim, you\u2019ll go a long way in safeguarding your data if you diligently adopt all these precautions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For all its amenities, the digitalization of our everyday lives also puts us at risk of online attacks by individuals seeking to take advantage of our data. For example, statistics show an ever-increasing frequency of identity theft fraud year after year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, how do we protect ourselves? By remaining vigilant whenever we go online, keeping our data safe and secure at all times, and conducting regular credit report checks, we\u2019ll avoid the frightening consequences that arise in identity theft cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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Stevanovic","author_link":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/author\/ivan-stevanovic\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"[…]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498,"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/2498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dataprot.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How Do I Check if Someone Is Using My Identity?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Review your credit report<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Check your bank statements<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Track your bills<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Use an identity monitoring service<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5. Confirm your tax records are correct<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
6. Check your criminal record<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
7. Review your loan or benefits eligibility<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How Does Identity Theft Happen?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
How to Prevent Identity Theft?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Wrapping Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n