So there you are sitting at home, working or who knows where patting yourself on the back because you think you know everything there is to know about protecting your identity. You brag to your family and friends that you know all the tricks of the trade associated with criminal identity theft. That’s right, you won’t become a victim because you know all about the scams and tactics like Dumpster Diving, Repossession, Theft of payments or ID cards, Phishing, Change of address, Pretexts, Remote reading of information, Advertising of fake job offers , Social media browsing, old-fashioned theft, keylogging and 100 more things. Well, all of your knowledge is great for the 20 percent of your personal information that you actually have control over!

When a criminal obtains your Social Security number, name, date of birth, etc. it’s like giving them a gold bar and it’s all over except the screaming in your mind’s eye. Do you really have control of phone lists, memos, policy manuals, event calendars, systems manuals, printouts, disks, organizational changes, and everything else that (despite laws to prevent improper removal of information) the business or company ends up in the trash and landfills constantly. Accept it, you don’t!

So now you have two strikes against you. One, you can control personal information on the home front, which is why you think home front information is more leaky than you think, and two, unless you liquidate everything and leave all businesses in the United States, you have personal data. in the public domain waiting. for the criminal harvest as well. This country has and continues to display your personal information everywhere even though we know that identity theft is the number one white collar crime plaguing its citizens.

Yes, we are making progress with laws, security measures, countermeasures, and consumer awareness programs, but your Social Security number is still available and can be obtained legally and professionally by the average person by criminals, investigators, journalists, and all the rest. font you can think of. The following are just a few examples of how public and private registries expose your SSAN;

Driver’s license summaries – In some states, the SSAN is used for the license number or appears along with the license number. Some states allow the use of an SSAN to be optional, but despite this, only 15 percent of applicants apply for a driver’s license without an SSAN.

Income tax records – Tax records are sometimes made public (commonly in divorces where there are issues of alimony, child support/custody, property division, etc. where tax returns are presented as key evidence, disputes with the IRS they finally arrive in Washington, where the IRS Form 7249-M can list detailed information about the subject’s salary, income streams, assets, and other obligations, a person involved in civil litigation might find their personal tax records. attached to publicly available documents such as pretrial discovery or evidence at trial.) Your tax documents still contain your SSAN/TIN taxpayer identification number.

Application for Employment, Housing and Court Records. – Name, date of birth, SSAN is almost always information required to obtain a bank account, apartment, job, loan, mortgage or credit card. It is not difficult at all for law enforcement, lawyers, investigators, journalists (people posing as the same) to get access/copies of apartment rentals or job applications. Apartment applications are common civil court records that are typically found attached to landlord/tenant case files or personal bankruptcy files and criminal court files as evidence of a motion or affidavit.

Vote Registration Records – Voter registration records in some areas are kept at the local board of elections and are almost always made public. Many contain the SSAN to prevent electoral fraud. This SSAN listing has diminished over the years, but is commonly listed on the oldest records still available.

military records – Military members are identified by their SSAN, and although the Privacy Act of 1974 prevents the government from releasing the SSAN, a request for a person service record could find the SSAN listed on discharge documents ( DD Form 214) filed with the county courthouse.

These are just a few examples of some publicly accessible methods of digging up present person parts or past records of your SSAN, date of birth, full name, and other data being leaked to the public.

I am not trying to be a fatalist, but rather; A Realist If you don’t have the time or expertise to implement measures to protect your identity and that of your family, consider visiting a credit protection service that can implement appropriate measures to preserve your good name, credit, and assets readily available to others. criminals. Like it or not, a good measure of your identity is, in fact, a matter of public record or the result of hacking, the illegal or botched removal of employee records and company or corporate information. You can find some highly recommended criminal detection services on the Internet with an identity theft search.