National Protect Your Identity Week 2012

Not sure what you can do to protect your sensitive personal information? October 20 - 27, 2012 is "National Protect Your Identity Week" (NPYIW).

The ProtectYourIDNow site contains a wealth of information for consumers, plus local events by state. I visited the website to see what's available this year. There are some interesting statistics about how consumers don't protect themselves nor their sensitive personal information:

"68 percent of people with public social media profiles shared their birthday information (with 45 percent sharing month, date and year); 63 percent shared their high school name; 18 percent shared their phone number; and 12 percent shared their pet's name-all are prime examples of personal information a company would use to verify your identity."

While it may feel nice to receive birthday congratulations from your "friends" on social networking websites, the fact is that your birth date is a sensitive and critical piece of personal information that data brokers (and identity thieves) use to distinguish between multiple people with the same name. Experts warn consumers to stop doing these seven things on Facebook and other social networking websites. Some other interesting statistics:

"Seven percent of Smartphone owners were victims of identity fraud... 32 percent of Smartphone owners do not update to a new operating system when it becomes available; 62 percent do not use a password on their home screen... 32 percent save login information on their mobile device... Young adults, aged 18-24, took the longest to detect identity theft - 132 days on average... the average cost ($1,156) was roughly five times more than the amount lost by other age groups... Children may be 51 times more likely than adults to have their identity stolen..."

The NPYIW website includes tips to protect yourself, informative videos, advice about what to do if you are a victim of identity theft and fraud, and an online quiz to test your knowledge about identity theft and fraud. Sponsors of NPYIW include the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, the National Sheriffs Association, the National Association of Triads, the Consumer Federation of America, the Council Of Better Business Bureaus, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Identity Theft Resource Center, the National Crime Prevention Council, the Credit Union National Association, and many others.

Did you attend a NPYIW event? If so, share your experience below.

Comments

[Protect my id]

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