--- title: What You Need to Know About Identity Theft | TIME description: Jill Schlesinger talks to Adam Levin, the author of "Swiped" about what you need to know about identity theft and how you can protect yourself from it happening to you. canonical: https://time.com/video/qpptWYnC/ og:title: What You Need to Know About Identity Theft og:description: Jill Schlesinger talks to Adam Levin, the author of "Swiped" about what you need to know about identity theft and how you can protect yourself from it happening to you. og:url: https://time.com/video/qpptWYnC/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qpptWYnC/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What You Need to Know About Identity Theft twitter:description: Jill Schlesinger talks to Adam Levin, the author of "Swiped" about what you need to know about identity theft and how you can protect yourself from it happening to you. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qpptWYnC/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # What You Need to Know About Identity Theft > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: What You Need to Know About Identity Theft [Watch (HLS stream): What You Need to Know About Identity Theft](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qpptWYnC.m3u8) (3:49)  _Published 2016-06-06. Jill Schlesinger talks to Adam Levin, the author of "Swiped" about what you need to know about identity theft and how you can protect yourself from it happening to you._ --- Jul 27, 2023 8:13 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Protect Your Kids' Identity Online](/video/nsoBmPJ4/) ### Protect Your Kids' Identity Online [MONEY Year Ahead - Identity Theft](/video/Eiw7BaUV/) ### MONEY Year Ahead - Identity Theft [How to Prevent ID Theft This Holiday Season](/video/tjZXh6E5/) ### How to Prevent ID Theft This Holiday Season --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Identity theft, it's on the rise. Luckily we've got security expert Adam Levin, he's the author of a new book called Swiped. Adam, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for inviting me. We are just coming a couple months out of tax season. That's gotta be high on the hit parade of fraud that is relevant right now. Totally, I mean Billions of dollars are being stolen from the Treasury and you find out that you're a victim three ways with tax fraud. First is, you attempt to file your tax return and you're blocked. Secondly, you're waiting for your refund and it never shows up because you find out your refund was issued to you. Except, you weren't you. And the third thing is you get a deficiency notice from the IRS telling you that you woefully underreported your income. Because unbeknown to you, someone might be using your social security number got work and their income is being reported to your social security number . >> And in addition to tax fraud, give us some other types of fraud that are really prevalent right now. What should we be guarding against ? >> Well new account fraud which happens literally every every minute of every day where people are opening accounts in your name using your social security number Medical identity theft, when people are getting services and treatments in your name or on your insurance, which could be draining your insurance. It could prevent you from getting certified for operations, because someone else had them. And then there's criminal identity theft, where someone's taking your information, goes out, commits crimes, you're stopped for a busted tail light. And suddenly thrown on the ground, handcuffed and hauled off to jail based on warrants issued for your arrest in a state you've never been in, involving crimes you have never committed. There's also these ishings. What are the ishings that are out there? Yes, I call them the pantheon of ishings. The first is Phishing, Dear Card holder, Dear Member, spear phishing, Dear Jill, vishing, where someone call you on phone and represents themselves to be an institution like the Internal Revenue Service or a bank and they're not and Smishing where you get a text that says that you account has been frozen but if you wish to unfreeze it Click on this link and give us some information so we can reauthorize your account. Okay, so in those cases the solution's easy. Don't click on these things that you don't know where they're coming from. And that seems quite rational. But even don't click on things where you think you know where they might be coming from. So if you get an email from someone you know Call them and just make sure they were the ones that sent you the email before you click on any link. What else can we do to protect ourselves right now against identity theft? Well the important thing is never provide information about yourself to someone who calls you. Also long and strong passwords. Secure your devices, make absolutely sure that you have the best software, the best firewalls, that they're updated. Shred. I know it sounds simple, but it is one of the key things you need to think about. Two factor authentication, which is where they know who you are, you know who they are, but remember, with security questions, lie. That's interesting. Because the security question in and of itself, the answer to that can provide a clue to a hacker or a thief. Absolutely. Because so much information is shared online by so many people every second of the day. Things that you think are just part of life. Unfortunately, you need to think of them as components of a nuclear weapon. In and of themselves they're harmless when combined they could be lethal. Adam Levin, author of the new book Swiped, thank you so much for joining us and scaring the pants of all of us about identity theft. 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