Protect Your Reputation From ID Theft
Reputation:
Fake Postings
This is one of the easiest types of identity copying to achieve, and involves posting a comment on a website or discussion group using the name of your business.
This may not sound like a huge problem; but remember that the fraudster could say anything about your business, or could make libellous accusations against your competitors, suppliers or customers. These comments could quickly attract press and media attention, and could spread into damaging publicity before you are able to remove or deny the comments.
For Example: If someone claiming to be an employee told people that your products were unsafe, that could cause panic among your customers; as well as damaging your reputation and those of your suppliers.
Supplier and Customer Reputation
If a fraudster manages to get credit or organize fraudulent orders, it could damage the image of your business with suppliers and customers; who may feel less confident about providing your business with future credit or making payments
Security Image
If your business has a strong image of security, or you hold important or confidential details about customers or suppliers; then the occurrence of identity theft could seriously damage the image of your business. If customers begin to feel that they cannot trust your business with their details, then they will go elsewhere. Credit Score If a fraudster purchases items using credit, you could find that your credit rating score is damaged; either because no payment was made, or because the transaction was proved to be fraudulent.
Repairing your credit rating could take time and money, and in the meantime you may be unable to obtain further finance towards your business.
How Can Your ID be Stolen, and How Can You Prevent it?
Passwords
One of the most common weak points that fraudsters utilize is a username and password for security and other systems. The supposed use of complex gadgets to work out passwords is almost zero; the real problem is that an astounding number of people use passwords that are incredibly easy to guess. Codes such as ‘password’, ’1234′, ‘abcd’ are so common that many fraudsters simply try them out of chance. Most people still use obvious things for passwords, their favourite football team, their child’s or pet’s name; all a fraudster has to do is find these simple facts out to stand a chance of stealing your identity. There are three simple ways to stop fraudsters cracking your password: 1. Pick something that is not obvious, a unique combination of letters and numbers is best; but even if the letters are short for something you know, it will be much harder to break in to than an obvious code. For Example: Instead of “manutd” or your year of birth “1975″ choose “mu1975″ 2. Change your password regularly; for very important systems, never keep the same password for more than a couple of months. 3. As simple as it sounds, do not write your password down anywhere near the computer/system! If you write your password down nearby, anyone could find it; even if you keep it in a secure place (e.g. A private drawer), someone who deliberately looks for it could probably find it easily.
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