Covering Your Identity Theft Risk
Protect your employment and government identities
The most sought after information useful to identity thieves include your government and employment identities. These identities usually amount to no more than nine digit numbers. But in the hands of a skilled identity thief, these numbers can end up costing you huge amounts of time, energy and money when sorting through the wreckage of a successful identity heist. While employment and government identities are not the only identities that place individuals and businesses at risk for ID theft, they are among the most common sources of identity theft.
Social security number
As the undisputed most commonly used from of identification, the Social Security Number is technically nothing more than a tax ID number used by the federal government. But it is also the primary way for credit lending institutions to identify and record your credit history. Because this nine digit tax ID number is specific to each individual person, creditors, lenders and credit bureaus rely on your Social Security Number to create your credit identity. In the wrong hands, your Social Security Number can have a detrimental impact on your credit record. This is also true of the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which is assigned to people who do not have Social Security Numbers.
Employer identification number
The Employer Identification Number, or EIN, primarily affects business owners. The Internal Revenue Service assigns business owners an EIN in order to identify each business as an individual identity. Just as Social Security Numbers pose significant identify theft risks to individuals, your business’ EIN can provide identity thieves with access to identity fraud at your business’ expense.
