| People often share their personal information to | | | | attractive to identity theft criminals. |
| strangers with utter disregard of how such act can | | | | Sharing your Credit Card Information Over the Phone |
| have enormous effects on your bank account. These | | | | There was this one time when I was too lazy to cook. |
| are not occurrences, by the way, as these happen | | | | I simply picked up the phone and dialled the nearest |
| every single day. | | | | pizza joint in our town. As I was ordering my favourite |
| You read it right. People share their personal | | | | anchovy pizza, I was asked to provide my credit card |
| information to strangers every day. To illustrate my | | | | information. I did and as I mouthed out the numbers and |
| claim, I created a list of organizations that collect our | | | | information, the person I was talking to on the other line |
| personal information and to whom, we provided them | | | | and taking my order, kept to annoyingly repeat |
| without apprehension. | | | | everything that I said including my credit card |
| Here is a list of personal information that we share | | | | information like my name, credit card number, |
| everyday: | | | | expiration date, as well as the CCV number at the |
| 1. Social security number | | | | back of the card. I got so annoyed with his "repeating" |
| 2. Bank account number | | | | that I simply asked the person not to repeat at least |
| 3. Tax identification number | | | | the personal information that I was providing him. I |
| 4. Date of birth | | | | explained my concern about identity theft and he |
| 5. Medical information and history. | | | | understood. He was even amazed by the information |
| The following list will show to whom we share this | | | | that I provided. According to him, he never thought that |
| information to (and there are those that are not | | | | identity theft could happen even to these types of |
| included in this list): | | | | situation. |
| 1. Dentist's office | | | | This should get you into thinking about the security of |
| 2. Banks that issue credit cards | | | | your identity. We can never be fully protected against |
| 3. Online retail stores | | | | identity theft because our personal information can be |
| 4. Doctor's office | | | | found almost everywhere-online and offline. There |
| 5. Medical procedure companies | | | | have been a lot of organizations who keep their |
| 6. Computer stores | | | | database online and these are prone to hackers and |
| 7. Restaurants | | | | identity theft criminals. |
| 8. Hospitals | | | | With the increasing threat of stolen identities, everyone |
| 9. Online music stores | | | | should be aware of some simple precautionary steps |
| 10. And a whole lot more. | | | | that should be undertaken to prevent identity theft. |
| You see the bulk of the people and organizations that | | | | One step that you can take is to not share your |
| have access to your personal information? You are | | | | personal information to people who do practically does |
| exposed-all of us are-to identity theft and while we | | | | not have anything to do with your personal information. |
| cannot fully protect ourselves against it, we can still | | | | Provide them only as needed. |
| take a handful of security measures to help us be less | | | | |