Florida Ranked Number One in Identity Theft
Published April 13th, 2012
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Early this month global payments confirmed that about 1.5 million Visa and Master Card numbers were stolen in North America.
Now the sunshine state is in the spotlight for a similar reason.
According to the Federal Commission, Florida is the state with the highest number of identity theft complaints.
"It's scary, it's really scary," said Liana Charles.
That's how Charles describes how she feels about having her identity stolen.
She says she didn't know she was a victim until she went to file her taxes during spring break.
She says she didn't know she was a victim until she went to file her taxes during spring break.
"My taxes were rejected by the IRS because someone else had used my social security number," said Charles.
But thats just one way people can misuse your identity.
"It could very well be a more prevalent time during this time of year because it's tax season, but really you should be protecting yourself all the time," said Deputy Cary Gallop.
Especially here in Florida.
A recent study by the Federal Trade Commission shows Florida is the state with the highest number of identity theft complaints.
Gallop says the most common ways for someone to steal your personal information are online, by phone or by mail.
Some people tend to take out their credit cards and licenses while their waiting at grocery stores and gas stations, but that's actually one way thieves can steal your identity. With all these smart phones they can easily take out their phone, snap a quick picture and just walk away with your personal information.
Gallop says some ways to protect your identity is by shredding all important paperwork, don't give your information through email or phone and avoid using obvious passwords.
"A friend of mine who is actually a code writer for dot.net and he showed me where if your password is either all letters or all numbers, he can create a program that can hack it in about 20 seconds," said Gallop.
As for Charles, she says she hasn't seen any weird activity with her bank accounts and credit cards, but now she is more cautious.
"It's a good thing I don't have much credit established, but I mean I am worried now if I want to get another credit card like I have fraud alerts and everything."
If you are a victim of any kind of theft gallop says make sure to report immediately and save all documents as evidence.
By: Yaremi Farinas
