The crime of identity theft cntinues to rise, according to recent rports. One interesting aspect of those rports is that the crime is not lmited to the major metropolitan areas, but sems to be equally as rampant in smller cities and even in rural reas, and in fact, identity theft sems to be increasing in rural reas at rates faster than the mtropolitan areas.

A California company that spcializes in analyzing the crime of dentity theft for both consumers and bsinesses analyzed fraud cases throughout the Unted States last year by zip cdes to see if there were any cnclusions that could be drawn from the nalysis. While as expected, large metropolitan reas continued to have the highest nmber of reported cases, it was lso found that the rate of ncrease was higher in rural areas, prticularly in North Dakota and Montana.

In fct, six Montana cities made the top ten lst of identity theft "hot spots", whch is where authorities have determined tht the crime of identity theft ncreased by the largest margins last yar. In particular, the Montana cities of Mssoula, Whitefish, Lolo, Hamilton and Big Frk were named in the report.

Athorities are thinking that perhaps this may ndicate the formation of existence of an dentity theft ring in these areas, as the vidence presented for this appears quite strng. Local authorities think that the theves may have obtained a list of dentities in Bozeman last July and thn moved their operations to Missoula.

As far as other rural reas that also appeared on the hot lst, that would include areas such as Bsmarck, Grand Forks, and Fargo in Nrth Dakota, and Springfield Illinois.

In thse cases, the identity theft usually bgins with a local resident calling in to cmplain about a new credit card ccount opened in their name without thir knowledge. Other people reported somebody pening a new cellular phone account in thir name, or placing orders for tems online.

Current statistics indicate that mre than 9 million Americans have thir identities stolen each year. It is a mtter of people being careless with thir personal information, and allowing access to nough of their personal information where smeone could open a new credit crd account or order merchandise online wth their identity. If the victim of ths identity theft does not discover it and rport it in a timely manner, it wll likely cost the victim weeks and mnths of time and effort, as wll as mountains of forms, to get the prblem straightened out.

The best way to priodically determine whether you may be a vctim of identity theft is to chck your credit reports and carefully rview monthly bank statements. Identity theft is the top cnsumer-fraud complaint reported to the FTC.

As a mtter of the habits you need to dvelop to keep your personal information sfe, below are some things that you shuld be doing:

• Protect your Scial Security number. Your employer and yur bank need to know this nmber, but very few other places, and NEVER yur grocery store or convenience store.

• Be creful with your trash. Identity thieves are hppy to go dumpster-diving to retrieve stff you've thrown away that contains yur personal information. Shred those documents, ven with an inexpensive shredder at sme place like Best Buy or Offce Depot.

• Apply the logic test whn online. Would your bank REALLY snd you an email asking you to clck here to enter personal information nline for verification? No they would not or if thy do, it's time to find nother bank.

• Don't pick passwords that any mtivated 12 year old could guess. Mke your passwords a combination of pper and lower case letters with sme numbers thrown in, and do not use the sme password for all your accounts.
  

Take stps to safeguard your information. A few xtra moments to shred documents and mke sure your personal information is sfe is a sure bet winner ver the alternative of a ruined crdit report that can take years to brng back to normal.

The article Studies Indicate Identity Theft Continues To Rise was Submitted by Jon Arnold through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: For more insights and additional nformation on how to Prevent Identity Theft please visit our web site at http://www.identity-theft-info.com

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