South Floridians need to be on high alert for indentity theft
MIAMI - South Florida is a hot spot for identity theft.
A report by credit card aggregator Upgraded Points found the Miami metro region tops all other US metro regions when it comes to people falling victim to identity theft. The Miami region includes Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
The big problem is that as we put more and more information online, criminals are becoming more skillful at hacking, stealing our data, and opening accounts, doing all of that before their victims even realize it.
Assistant Miami Police Chief Armando Aguilar was a victim of identity theft himself. He said they are seeing more criminals involved in this because it's easy and sometimes harder to trace."
It's a lot more low risk than standing out on the corner and selling drugs where you could be shot at. Your risk of arrest is a lot lower. So, it's certainly one of those crimes, and I think for most crimes this is probably true, but probably more so for fraud and identity theft that your best medicine is certainly prevention," he said.
So here are some things you can do to help protect yourself from falling victim to fraud and identity theft:
- Freeze your credit
- Use strong passwords and an authentification step
- Be alert to phishing emails and texts
- Safeguard your Social Security number
- Use alerts from your bank and credit card provider if available
- Check your credit report regularly
According to the Upgraded Points report, the most common way people are targeted today is through text messages. Other most common ways they steal information include mailbox theft, hacking public wifi, data breaches, skimming, and phone scams.
