By Jack Howard
In 132 days, you may realize your identity was stolen.
Eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds take that long on average to realize they’ve been targeted. By contrast, their parents figure it out within 50 days, according to a Javelin Strategy and Research report.
Consumer advocate Adam Levin says it’s no surprise under 30-somethings account for the most identity theft complaints too. Almost 60,000 cases of stolen personal information were reported to the Federal Trade Commission from that demographic last year.
After all, young peoples’ personal info is all over the place – from social media to even online quizzes.
For instance, BuzzFeed responses could unlock a bank account’s security question. Levin says it’s not safe to reveal even your favorite color or cat’s name.
“It’s almost like components of a nuclear weapon,” he said. “In and of themselves, many of the components are completely harmless. But when assembled, all together, they’re lethal.”
Levin says online activity is one reason why identity theft has become inevitable.
“I believe breaches are rapidly becoming the third certainty in life behind death and taxes,” said Levin.
On average, identity theft costs individuals almost $5,000 to restore their credit rating and peace of mind. Businesses lost an estimated $5.6 million as a result of fraud. And, approximately 13 million Americans were impacted last year.
Free credit score reports give a heads-up your identity has been stolen. Then the real work starts, says identity theft lawyer Hugo Blankingship.
“So you still have to go through the process. You have to write the dispute letters. You have to send them out. You have to wait for the response to come back. And then you need to send them another dispute letter with even more information and documentation. And wait for that response to come back. And once all of that has happened, then you can hire a lawyer. And the lawyer will get your problem solved,” he said.
In short, getting back the identity you lost online requires snail mail, says Blankingship. And some patience.
The first step is reporting the theft to the police. Their report becomes evidence for credit agencies.
Levin says these credit agencies and some bank and employer programs can help. He says identity theft is becoming harder to clean-up by yourself.
“So many forms of identity theft have become so much more sophisticated than ever before, that it’s really beyond the ken of most people to understand what’s happening to know what you need to do to get yourself out of the mess,” he said.
Identity theft can happen when you’re at the hospital too. Last year, 43 percent of all reported incidents happened there, according to an Identity Theft Resource Center report.
Don’t give out your Social Security number until you know you can trust a new hospital. Same goes for a job interview. Levin says an employer shouldn’t require your social until you’re hired.
This may sound overcautious. Worrying about taking online quizzes and giving out your Social Security number all the time isn’t a fun way to live your life.
A start-up called Distil Networks is working to protect your data. Director of Engineering John Bullard says bots can steal personal data from websites by pretending to be you.
“It can do anything you can do logging into a website. It can log into your bank account and download all of your transaction history for the last two to three years so they can really simulate who you are based on your buying history,” he said.
Distil works with businesses to make data safer. They differentiate bad bots like the recent Heartbleed Virus from good bots like Google.
Bots are programs that repeat different tasks using code, or instructions. Last year, Distil found 2.2 billion bad bots.
“By cutting out the bot vector, and all of these easy-to-use automated tools, we make websites much safer,” Bullard said.
Bullard says Distil is in a good position as the internet becomes more open to protect those users.
In the end, consumer advocate Adam Levin says you still have to be careful how you share any personal info. He says identity thieves’ day job is to disrupt yours.
