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Summer months require increased attention to ID verification

Jul 06, 2011 Brian Bradley

With the summer coming, many people decide to take some much needed time away from the office to both clear their heads and reconnect with family and friends. However, according to some experts, people must be careful that their credit and personal information doesn't all into the hands of a growing criminal element - identity thieves. In a recent interview with WBAL-TV, Amber Yoo, who works for Privacy Rights Clearing House, said users of social media should be careful not to share too much information with complete strangers on the internet. "We recommend that you avoid using Wi-Fi hotspots to do sensitive transactions, such as looking at your bank account, because it's possible for a thief to do something called Wi-Fi sniffing and figure out your login and password," Yoo said, according to the source. There have been a worrying number of ID theft-related issues as of late. A recent study by Carnegie Mellon's CyLab found that 4,311 out of 42,232 children had their identity stolen.