It’s all fun and games until you have several thousands of dollars of credit card debt and no identity.
Identity theft isn’t something that people normally think about. It’s that thing that happens to those folks on TV commercials for companies that will protect you from identity theft. But it doesn’t only happen to those people, and it’s not a joke either.
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Identity theft can ruin you financially. It destroys your credit rating, which you need to get things like loans or cars. It will also put you on the hook for thousands of dollars’ worth of debt, which places you at the mercy of creditors that will be less than sympathetic to your plight.
And there are a lot of careless ways to fall victim to it. Have you ever accidentally forgotten your wallet in a restaurant or bar? That’s one way that credit cards, drivers licenses, social security cards or bank account information can get stolen. Do you live at a house with a mailbox that doesn’t lock? While this might not be a problem that most of us have because we are students who by-and-large live in apartments with locking mailboxes, it’s still an easy way for someone to get a hold of sensitive information.
Keep an eye out, and be sure you have everything before you leave. Forgetting something might bite you hard somewhere down the line.
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