An identity theft expert from the Office of the Attorney General offered tips and protection advice regarding identity theft, Tuesday in Honesdale.
David Shallcross, Public Protection Community Liaison, gave an hour-long presentation, which touched on many different types of fraud and offered different ways to protect against them. The event was hosted by the Honesdale Rotary and was held at Cordaro’s Restaurant.
“A lot of times people allow themselves to become victimized, and we’re going to educate people how to avoid that today,” said Shallcross.
Keeping control of your personal information and treating it like it’s cash is one of the most important things people can do to avoid identity theft, he said. “When you have statements from the bank, or credit card bills...it needs to be shred, rather than just discarded” he said. “People will go through your trash...and they can obtain a lot of information that way.”
Identity theft is a $58 billion a year situation throughout the United States, Shallcross said. It affects 10 million Americans per year, and identity theft occurs every four seconds. Pennsylvania ranks 19th for reported identity thefts.
Shallcross said most fraud has some ties overseas. Fraud, he said, can be used to fund terrorists, tied to organized crime, harmful to the American Economy and a cause for personal stress.
All consumers get hurt by widespread fraud. Credit card companies lose billions to fraud through he reimbursement of fraud victims. This causes the credit card companies to put more pressure on merchants for service fees, which in turn forces the merchants to raise price of goods.
Over half of identity theft is perpetrated by people you know, he said.
“Be sure you look out for yourself. That’s the number one thing I can tell people. Do not release any personal and financial information to people you do not know,” he said. “Any type of solicitation, whether it be over the telephone, through the mail, or electronically on the computer, I would avoid giving out any personal information until I verified the source.”
Go to www.attorneygeneral.gov for more information and to utilize the Identity Theft Toolkit.
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An identity theft expert from the Office of the Attorney General offered tips and protection advice regarding identity theft, Tuesday in Honesdale.
David Shallcross, Public Protection Community Liaison, gave an hour-long presentation, which touched on many different types of fraud and offered different ways to protect against them. The event was hosted by the Honesdale Rotary and was held at Cordaro’s Restaurant.
“A lot of times people allow themselves to become victimized, and we’re going to educate people how to avoid that today,” said Shallcross.
Keeping control of your personal information and treating it like it’s cash is one of the most important things people can do to avoid identity theft, he said. “When you have statements from the bank, or credit card bills...it needs to be shred, rather than just discarded” he said. “People will go through your trash...and they can obtain a lot of information that way.”
Identity theft is a $58 billion a year situation throughout the United States, Shallcross said. It affects 10 million Americans per year, and identity theft occurs every four seconds. Pennsylvania ranks 19th for reported identity thefts.
Shallcross said most fraud has some ties overseas. Fraud, he said, can be used to fund terrorists, tied to organized crime, harmful to the American Economy and a cause for personal stress.
All consumers get hurt by widespread fraud. Credit card companies lose billions to fraud through he reimbursement of fraud victims. This causes the credit card companies to put more pressure on merchants for service fees, which in turn forces the merchants to raise price of goods.
Over half of identity theft is perpetrated by people you know, he said.
“Be sure you look out for yourself. That’s the number one thing I can tell people. Do not release any personal and financial information to people you do not know,” he said. “Any type of solicitation, whether it be over the telephone, through the mail, or electronically on the computer, I would avoid giving out any personal information until I verified the source.”
Go to www.attorneygeneral.gov for more information and to utilize the Identity Theft Toolkit.
