One of the greatest ways to prevent identity theft and fraud is generally agreed to be a credit freeze. A credit freeze freezes your credit and closes it, therefore stopping identity thieves from creating accounts under your name and obtaining your credit report and score. One may wonder, however, whether it is still feasible to take my identity if my credit records are blocked.
The quick response to the preceding question is maybe, but compared to the first scenario it is much less probable. To stop anybody from seeing your credit report information, you freeze your credits using the three credit bureaus—Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. If fraudsters unable to examine your credit history or score cannot create fictitious credit cards or loans, they are seeking to steal and exploit your personal information.
However, there are still some risks to be aware of:
- Existing Accounts Fraud: Credit freeze locks credit freeze blocking new accounts opening under a consumer name; it does not affect credit cards or other financial accounts. Identity thieves who could have gathered partial or complete credit history might attempt to fraudulently access current accounts or siphon money from them. In such a case, you will still have to regularly monitor every current credit and bank account in case of illegal activity or transaction.
- Identity theft is a significantly more serious crime than credit or banking fraud; it is not limited to either. Identity thieves may also use personal information about you such as Social Security number, birth date, address, and many others to perform non-credit-related frauds including filing for false tax returns, obtaining medical services, and other non-credit identity theft crimes. Since they do not need the establishment of additional credit accounts, a credit freeze does not offset criminals' ability to commit these other types of fraud. You should pay careful attention to all the documents and accounts you own and be thorough.
- Data Breaches: Your credit is frozen, but this does not imply your data are not exposed to data leaks; you can therefore become the victim of identity theft down the road. Big-scale data breaches usually include the release of personal information to the black market, where it will always be accessible for use independent of the date of the breach. Therefore, even if you freeze your credit, this does not always guarantee that your information cannot be taken and used illegally. Always having a decent ID theft prevention strategy would be smart to have a backup.
- Most ingenious identity thieves use social engineering and conning techniques to get your priceless information. They could say, for instance, that you owe them money and use the phone to attempt to have you give PINs, passwords, and account numbers. Even with a credit freeze, so long as you freely provide this sort of sensitive information to crooks, there is a chance they may access your current accounts fraudulently. When you are contacted by someone you did not invite under the pretense of information gathering, avoid offering specifics.
- Information on Minors: Although youngsters below the age of eighteen cannot yet have their credit records or histories obtained, most of them are victims of identity theft. The crooks look for the other unused SSNs and information for identity theft so they may create credit accounts in the customers' names as the credit freeze option is not yet accessible to them. Regarding the minor's information, additional care needs to be used over its protection given the impossibility of freezing the account.
In a nutshell, a security freeze assists in shielding one against new account identity theft and fraud; even so, it is still possible for identity criminals to perpetrate unlawful acts, and access some of the consumer’s open accounts or personal information. Staying extremely cautious with the accounts you have, never falling for a social engineering trick to get you to disclose some information, and making a conscious effort not to expose much of yourself to identity thieves can help make the most use of credit freezes - in addition to credit freezes. Continue establishing more layers into the overall framework of ID management excluding the freeze aspect.
Suppose you do notice any such scams or realize that there is some shady activity going on with an account you already have with one of your credit-granting bodies after you have frozen your credit. In that case, you must speak with your financial institutions immediately and commence the identity theft recovery process. The earlier one notifies a bank or any institution of any unauthorized activity on an account, the lesser amount of money identity thieves can get through those accounts. If fraud does occur then it is advised to file reports with the Federal Trade Commission as well as your local law enforcement agencies so that they can be alerted to the identity theft attempt.
It is important to state that freezing your credit does not shield you from all forms of identity theft; however, it makes it almost impossible for most new accounts to identify fraud. When a freeze is practiced in conjunction with other implementable common-sense measures that can be taken by citizens, their probability of falling victim to an ID theft attack is greatly reduced. Even while the credit file is frozen, the credit report has to be checked regularly, the bank and credit card statements must be checked monthly, personal information must not be disclosed either on social media or when someone calls, and one must always be careful of being manipulated by scams. Together with credit freezes, focused vigilance, and individual approach are the key factors that can help people learn how to protect their identity properly.
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