A prime example of Identity theft is when someone steals your credit identity and uses credit in your name. This can have a serious impact on your credit score and bring it down significantly. As a result, you may not be able to access credit when you need it the most.
Besides, it may result in a financial loss that may be bad enough to put a blot on your CIBIL report for as long as seven years and you may be marked as a CIBIL defaulter even if you do your bit to maintain a high CIBIL score. If your CIBIL score drops to a level lesser than 750, you may have to resort to bad credit personal loans when you are in dire need of funds. The truth is that in this hyper connected world, identity theft is a hard reality. You are therefore likely to come across "people awareness campaigns" on cybercrimes such as identity theft on the website of financial institutions. Besides awareness campaigns are all over TV, radio and other mediums. If such messages have intrigued you, and you wish to know how to check CIBIL defaulter, you need to know how to protect yourself from identity theft. Here are some tips to prevent yourself from identity theft Be wary of social media platforms Most of us are on numerous social media platforms these days. In a pursuit to use more and more apps, you may willingly disclose sensitive information that makes you vulnerable to identity theft. Whether or not you are new to the social media frenzy, make sure your privacy settings on such platforms remain highly secure. Sharing any kind of financial information over such networks such as passwords and the like are a strict no-no. Also, be completely sure about the authenticity of websites or apps before granting permission to access information such as date of birth, residence address, occupation and place of work. A savvy hacker does not take long to stitch this information together to construct likely passwords and before you know it your financial information has been hacked, your CIBIL score is compromised and you are left with no option but to access bad credit personal loans when you need a quick line of credit. Emphasise on password strength If you are internet savvy, you are most likely to use internet banking and make other financial transaction over the web. This necessitates the use of passwords. Stay away from over simplistic passwords while making financial transactions. Words that are found in the dictionary should be avoided. Construct strong financial passwords with the use of mnemonics, numbers and special characters. The more complicated your passwords the more you can ensure yourself against identity theft. Avoid financial transactions in unsecured Wi-Fi zones These days it is easy to access the internet in public wi-fi zones.
As fun as it may be to banter over social media in such places, making financial transactions over such networks is not a good idea. Wait till you are in a secured wi-fi environment to make such transactions, else switch to your mobile data if it is an absolute must. By using your phone to make financial transactions in unsecured wi-fi networks you are making yourself susceptible to identity thefts. Be careful about physical documents It is true that most of us are increasingly using soft copies to store important documents. However, some documents such as credit card statements and bank account details arrive in the physical mail and when you are tired of the stash of paper, you just discard them without a second thought. Do so by all means, but ensure that you are using a shredder first! Those who are on the lookout to steal your identity may derive information from such documents easily. Therefore, it is important to destroy them before you discard them for good.
Keep a hawk eye on your CIBIL report. Lastly, but not the least, if you wish to know how to check CIBIL defaulter, the one thing that you must do without fail is to keep a check over your CIBIL report. Because of the large amount of data handled by banks and credit bureaus, errors and discrepancies cannot be ruled out. However, if you keep a check on your CIBIL report at regular intervals, you will be able to spot such errors if any and raise a CIBIL dispute to take a corrective action at the earliest. In this hyper connected world that we live in today, it is thus very important to keep a strict vigil over financial transactions, records and passwords in order to protect your identity. Further, if you are not quick to spot and act upon errors in your credit report, there may be a situation in which you are forced to access loan for low credit in a financial crunch.