Identity Theft During Travel

Is your identity safe when you travel? Are you aware if someone is using your bank account details and making transactions posing as you? Are you sure all your email account credentials are secure? Identity theft is a grave issue and must be addressed with necessary measures especially when getting ready to travel as well as while traveling

You have made arrangements for travel, have packed your suitcase according to the weather conditions at the destination country, also purchased visitor insurance. You are ready to say bye to your family and friends, and ready to leave for your much awaited international travel. Or you can be a business traveler ready with your presentations, ipads, laptops etc. and packed for your business meetings at the destination. But are you sure you are safe? Are you sure if your personal information would not be compromised? In today’s times of evolving technology, Identity Theft has become very common. Therefore along with travel arrangements and accommodations, a traveler should take care of his financial and digital identity.

What is Identity Theft?
Identity theft is a crime where one person obtains some other person’s private and confidential information like credit card numbers, social security number or other important identification details, mostly for financial gain. Today with the technological innovations, identity theft can be stealing someone’s digital identity too. For example, gaining unauthorized access to someone’s bank account, email credentials or medical information. It’s of utmost importance to take care of your digital and financial identity along with your material and fixed assets.

Identity Theft & Travelers

A lot of times travelers are aware of pickpockets. They safeguard their suitcases, expensive equipments like laptop/cameras/phones/sports stuff etc. but they do not pay attention to identity theft. But in today’s time, it is equally true that travelers are very prone to identity theft. Here are some of the reasons why-

1. Travelers often use shared or unsecured internet connections (through free wifi at airports, hotel lobby etc.) at various different places. This could compromise their digital identity.
2. Travelers carry personal documents like passports, national identification cards, credit and debit cards, checkbooks, social security document, medical records, etc. with them. These could be stolen for financial gains.
3. Travelers buy things from unknown places and often pay by their credit and debit cards. They also sign different receipts. This is a common case of financial identity theft.
4. Travelers often login on social and business networking sites, viz., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter with their credentials. These may keep them logged in even after they have closed the browser. This comes under stealing someone’s digital identity.

How to protect your identity while traveling?

1. Do not carry unnecessary documents or cards with you in your wallet and bag. Leave them at home or lock them in your hotel’s safe box before stepping out.
2. The lockers in your hotel room may not be the safest place, but store your valuable documents in the safe box behind the reception counter which is a much safer option.
3. Carry needed important documents safely. Money belts & pouches, neck and shoulder wallets, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) blocking wallets (nowadays a lot of documents like passports, credit cards have RFID chip that stores all the information about the holder. RFID blocking wallets ensure the transfer of this sensitive information using a RFID reader is blocked).
4. It is tempting to use free wifi at the airports, hotel rooms, coffee shops etc. However, attention must be paid to what are you browsing over these free shared and unsecure connections. Avoid logging to your bank accounts, email accounts containing personal information, work emails etc. For these, use a secure connection or mobile phone’s data network (may be 3G or 4G).
5. Avoid putting your travel details on social media sites.
6. Be patient. Avoid sharing personal videos and photos over such public connections.
7. Use https:// instead of http://, HTTPS is authentication of the visited website and protection of the privacy and integrity of the exchanged data (S in HTTPS stands for Secure) (Source: Wikipedia)
8. Install a plug-in called “HTTPS Everywhere” on your device. It is a browser extension available for Firefox, Chrome and Opera and encrypts (keeps connection safe) the device’s communication with many major websites.
9. When using your email and other personal accounts on a shared network, do not forget to logout. Also while logging in, do not check “stay permanently signed in”. This may provide easy opportunity to an imposter to steal your identity and private information.
10. You should not have same password for different accounts. This is so because if one password is known to someone, they may try logging in to your other accounts with the same password.
11. Take care and pay attention to different warnings generated by your browser. Browsers must also be regularly updated for security features.
12. When using a public computer or any smart device, make sure you delete cookies and history information.
13. Your security software and antivirus softwares must be regularly updated on all your devices.
14. Whenever traveling, change your device’s settings. It should not update your apps automatically (whenever there is a wifi connection). Make sure your device do not connect automatically to the nearest available wifi.
15. Do not forget to check your credit card often during traveling. This can be done using secured connections over your device or calling the bank authorities. This way if something fraudulent has happened, it can be caught before anything more happens. Block your credit card immediately if such thing happens.
16. After coming back from the trip, change your passwords for all the possible accounts you might have accessed during the trip.
17. It is very much advisable to check all your online accounts- bank, insurance claims, credit cards, medical, etc. after your travel.

It is not impossible to protect yourself from identity theft. You just need to be careful. Follow these measures and secure your financial and digital identity while traveling. If you have something more to add to this list, feel free to comment below or contact us at info@visitorplans.com.