Credit card identity theft is perhaps the most prevalent form of identity theft.

Do you know the most common ways credit card identity theft occurs and why there is not much you can do to prevent it?

This type of crime is so prevalent because credit card numbers are so easy to steal. That's an obvious answer but let's see who is stealing your credit card and debit card account numbers and how.

The major sources of credit card identity theft are the:

~Stores you shop in and services you order in person, over the phone, or online

~Government agencies you interact with

~Restaurants you dine in

~Employers you work for

Who exactly is committing this crime:

~Inside thieves (employees)

~Outside thieves (hackers)

~Opportunistic thieves (the everyday criminal)

How exactly are they committing this crime:

~As an inside job by employees who have access to databases with your personal information

~By taking advantage of lax or limited security systems

~By stealing laptops and other data storage devices

~By physically reading and storing your credit card information with hand held readers

~By abusing an employer's authorized access to credit reports

What is particularly disturbing is that your credit card number isn't the only thing stolen, your debit card number is too. As you know, with your debit card the money comes right out of your checking account. But what you may not know is that debit cards do not offer the same protection as your credit card does. Currently, debit cards are governed under rules similar to check writing. However, the industry is making changes so be sure to ask your bank or debit card issuer what coverage is currently available on your card.

Once the thieves have your information they either use it themselves or sell it, often in on-line chat rooms that have been set up specifically for this purpose. The exchange happens within seconds and the criminals are virtually impossible to catch. The operations can be run by small time criminals or big time crime rings.

With your credit card number passing through so many hands and being stored in innumerable databases, can you see why there is not much you can do to prevent your financial data from being stolen and misused? Do you see the many ways that your data becomes vulnerable the moment you hand over your card to make a purchase? It is obvious now that you don't even need to use your credit card to become a victim of credit card identity theft? Once the number is in a database it's out of your hands - and into the criminals.

Since you can't prevent it, what can you do to protect yourself?

While there are steps you can take to minimize your risk and lessen your chances of being a victim such as cross-cut shredding your financial documents, promptly and carefully reviewing your financial statements and other simple steps outline elsewhere on this site, it's imperative you add to that the monthly monitoring of your credit report. A free credit report once a year is not enough because credit card identity theft can ruin your credit report without you being the slightest bit aware and it can go undetected for months.

Here are couple of affordable and reputable companies that offer monthly monitoring of your credit report that I've used:

Equifax
IDWatch

Perhaps you think monthly monitoring seems like a hassle, but it actually becomes routine once you get it set up. And you only have to set it up one time. A real hassle is having to spend the equivalent of three months at a full time job trying to repair damage done by credit card identity theft.

Or maybe you think it's too expensive or not worth the peace of mind it offers, if so, consider this: if you become a victim, you may have to spend up to (and over) one thousand times the cost of the one-year monitoring fee in recovery costs and lost wages - now that's expensive!

Leave CREDIT CARD IDENTITY THEFT page and go to the HOME page

footer for credit card identity theft page