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Contact 6: Identity theft protection
Contact 6: Identity theft protection
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Identity thieves take your cash and sometimes you don't know for months! FOX6's Contact 6 has some words of advice from an identity theft victim -- regarding how to protect yourself.
"The thieves knew my personal information, contacted my credit card company and pretended to be me," Christopher Hagler said.
Identity thieves got credit cards in Hagler's name -- along with 19 other victims, and then went shopping.
"They tried to spend $250,000 on watches, jewelry, purses," U.S. Postal Inspector Eric Shen said.
"They went to a jewelry store. They selected a nice-looking gold Rolex for the price tag of $29,000. I was furious. I was also in a bit of disbelief about how cold such a thing happen, especially when I am very cautious about security," Hagler said.
To avoid having your credit card information end up in the hands of thieves, Hagler has some advice.
"Make sure you`re not using your mother`s maiden name, or any family, genealogical information in your passwords, because a lot of that information is on the web and thieves know how to find it," Hagler said.
"Don`t have too many credit cards. Check your statements," Shen said.
"It`s very unnerving to know that someone out there is pretending to be you. It`s chilling actually," Hagler said.
Postal Inspector Shen says once you're a victim of identity theft, there is the potential that you'll be a victim multiple times. Your information is out there, and thieves will pass it around -- so the best bet is to never let it happen.