How Likely Are You to Be a Victim of Identity Theft?

So who’s most likely to be a victim?

• People with incomes over $75,000 were more likely to be hit than those with lower earnings.
• By age, the highest fraud rate is among people between 35 and 44.
• Ethnically Hispanics were hit the most followed by African-Americans, Caucasians and Asians.

These results were pulled from research performed by the Javelin Strategy and Research Group.Other worthwhile tidbits include the following ways to avoid identity theft:

Avoiding Identity Theft

* Don’t give out your Social Security number to anyone who calls you unless you do know the caller and were expecting the call.

* Don’t give out any personal identifying information on social networking websites and in chat room discussions. Always be sure to verify the identity of the person asking for the information.

* Keep your sensitive documents secure. A safe deposit box at your bank is your best bet.

* Shred any documents you want to throw out that have your account numbers or other identifying information on them. Shredders today are pretty cheap and a lot cheaper than cleaning up an identity fraud mess.

* Choose hard to guess passwords and pin numbers. Most people use a part of their name or a pet’s name. Be more creative. Also, change up your passwords and pin numbers so you don’t use the same one with several accounts.