For most of us, the start of the holiday shopping season is the cue to reach for our credit cards and hit the stores, malls and websites in order to find the perfect gifts for our loved ones. But identity thieves, con artists and Grinches of other sorts also use the holiday season as a chance to defraud the rest of us by stealing and exploiting our credit card information. And with more and more people turning online for their holiday shopping (more that 86 million online shoppers are expected this holiday season) the stage is set for identity theft and credit card fraud to reach record levels.
Of course, the risk is more serious where the incidence of identity theft is highest. For instance, residents of the three metropolitan areas hit hardest by identity theft in 2003 — Phoenix-Mesa, Los Angeles-Long Beach, and Riverside-San Bernardino — should be especially careful. But the fact is that the holiday season revs up risk factors across the board, for reasons that range from increased transactions to family distractions. So whether you hang your hat in Hoboken or in Whoville, you’ll want to be even more vigilant than usual.
The good news is that there’s a lot you can do to keep scammers from
nabbing your credit card information and other identity data —
especially if you understand what they do and how they do it. Click here to read all about holiday identity theft crimes, high risk areas and what you can do to keep your credit safe this December.
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