How to Keep Personal Data Safe When Traveling

From U.S. News (July 12, 2017)

The busy travel season is here, and millions of Americans are preparing for their long-awaited summer trips. While a lot of effort goes into vacation planning – from researching destinations to booking hotels and airfare – excited jetsetters often overlook an important detail before takeoff: how to keep personal and financial data safe. With credit card fraud and identity theft on the rise, distracted travelers are more vulnerable than ever and should be serious about safeguarding their information.
“Travelers are easy targets for identity thieves, especially during times of peak travel such as the summer,” says Kamil Faizi, identity theft specialist at IDShield.com, a company that provides identity theft protection to more than 1 million people in the U.S. and Canada. “Identity theft can happen globally, and the same technology is used by thieves regardless of where in the world one is traveling.”
Last year, 15.4 million Americans were exposed to an incident of identity theft, up 16 percent from 2015, according to the 2017 Identity Fraud Study by Javelin Strategy & Research. These attacks aren’t limited to the U.S., either. A recent report from ACI Worldwide and Aite Group shows that nearly 1 in 3 consumers has been victimized by card fraud on a global level. Although most consumers associate fraud and identity theft with the loss or theft of a wallet or purse, there are a number of other, less obvious ways that criminals obtain a traveler’s personal information. Learning how thieves attack consumers and knowing how to safeguard information can greatly reduce the risk of these threats.