| In 2006, approximately 15 million people were victims | | | | The experience, however, taught John a valuable |
| of identity theft. That means there’s a new | | | | lesson—in this day and age you have to be |
| victim of identity theft almost every 2 seconds. The | | | | proactive in protecting your credit. |
| age of electronic information has made it easier and | | | | When it comes to safeguarding your information, |
| easier for thieves to access your personal and | | | | there are some things you simply can’t control. |
| financial information. Once they have that information, | | | | John’s credit card information could have been |
| it’s open season on your credit. | | | | stolen in a dozen ways he could not have prevented. |
| Take John, for example. John took his family on a | | | | For example, credit cards can be duplicated when |
| nice vacation to Hawaii. He chose a gorgeous hotel | | | | you pay at a restaurant, or your information can be |
| and wanted everything to be perfect. The first night | | | | acquired by bribing an employee at a credit card |
| there, they all went out to a lovely dinner. When | | | | company or retail store you use. Sometimes the only |
| John tried to pay, his credit card was rejected for | | | | way you will realize you have been victimized is if |
| being over the limit. John was confused. He rarely | | | | you start getting bills from accounts you didn’t |
| used that card and he paid it off immediately when | | | | open or calls from a collection agency about debts |
| he did. He called the credit card company and learned | | | | that don’t belong to you. Getting turned down |
| that his card had been maxed out with thousands of | | | | on credit applications is another sign. If your bank or |
| dollars in purchases he never made. How could this | | | | credit card statements don’t arrive on time, |
| happen when John’s card was right there in his | | | | someone may have changed your address without |
| wallet? | | | | authorization. |
| It turns out, John’s credit card information had | | | | You may not always be able to prevent thieves |
| been stolen through his unsecured wireless network. | | | | from accessing your personal information, but you |
| Like millions of people, John had unwittingly opened | | | | can prevent them from using that information to ruin |
| himself up to Identity Theft by failing to secure his | | | | your credit. With the ID TheftSmart an Identity |
| wireless router. His credit card being maxed out was | | | | Theft Prevention service from Comodo, you can |
| an early warning sign that his identity had been | | | | have your credit constantly monitored for fraudulent |
| compromised. John immediately contacted all of his | | | | activity. In the event that your identity is |
| other credit card companies and banks to put fraud | | | | compromised, this program provides restoration |
| alerts on them. He changed all of the passwords on | | | | services to help return your credit to the proper |
| his accounts and took steps to secure his wireless | | | | score. By taking the proactive step of signing up for |
| network as soon as he got home. John was lucky. | | | | ID TheftSmart, identity thieves won’t be able to |
| Only one of his accounts was affected, and those | | | | victimize you. |
| charges were removed by the credit card company. | | | | |