Just about everyone knows the dangers involved with identity theft and the large negative impact it can have on every aspect of your life. Everyone to some degree does at least a few simple steps to help keep their personal information just that, personal. But despite the risks and the warnings there are scams that are successful every single day in duping people out of their very own personal information. We all know about these scams and many make comments about the people who fell for them and their gullibility yet when in the situation themselves many people do not make the correct decision in their own case.

Phone scams are very effective and have been around a long time and still continue to work despite the warnings. Recently when the US government gave out economic stimulus checks to its citizens a scam went around where a caller claimed to be from the IRS and needed to verify information to get the check to the recipient. Many people sat and told social security numbers, bank accounts, and more without even questioning the caller more. Whether on the phone or on the internet never give out your personal information to someone without taking the time to verify with that agency of company that this is legitimate.

It is imperative that individuals stay on top of their credit and if possible utilize some form of an identity theft protection service. The news is filled with companies and databases being breached, exposing the personal information on thousands of people at a time despite their own personal efforts to prevent identity theft for themselves.

Recently a hospital in the UK had four CDs with the personal information of around 18,000 staff members which contained the National Insurance numbers as well as enough information that bank accounts could be opened, take out loans, and get drivers licenses. Of course to make this loss of information worse the hospital kept this secret for almost two months. This was two months that the individuals could have used to monitor their credit and taken actions to cover them if the information was used fraudulently.

As consumers we need to always be vigilant with our personal information as we cannot depend on others to let us know when it has been exposed. We also need to let those we do business with know that we will not tolerate any loss of this info we have entrusted them with.