The partial government shutdown keeps having more and more unexpected repercussions. One of the unexpected issues that has arisen is that the Federal Trade Commission’s website for reporting identity theft which also provides guidance in responding to becoming a victim of identity theft has shut down. Here at Scamicide.com we have linked to the FTC’s website http://www.identitytheft.gov due to the tremendously helpful information it provides to anyone who has become a victim of identity theft. Promptly responding to becoming a victim of identity theft is important in order to minimize the damage and reclaim your life. Unfortunately, anyone going to http://www.identitytheft.gov now while the government shutdown continues will be greeted by an announcement that the website is not available during the shutdown. This is most unfortunate as there are many steps that people need to take in a timely fashion if they have become a victim of identity theft.

On a more macro and even dangerous level, the partial government shutdown has caused the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which protects the country from attacks against our critical federal infrastructure to furlough 43% of its employees putting the country in a more vulnerable position to respond to a foreign cyberattack.

TIPS

Unfortunately, the steps you need to take depend on how the identity theft occurred. Describing the things you need to do if you become a victim of identity theft is too voluminous to be able to cover in a Scam of the day. It would take a book to do so. Fortunately, there is a book that can guide you if you have become a victim of identity theft or even if you have not been a victim of identity theft, this book can help guide you through the steps to take to protect yourself as best you can from becoming a victim of identity theft. That book is my book “Identity Theft Alert.” Last year Identity Theft Alert was featured in an article about the Seven best Cybersecurity books where it sits at number one. A link to the article can be found below. If you are so inclined, you can vote in favor of it by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the review. Identity Theft Alert remains a tremendous resource for people seeking to find easy steps to help protect themselves from identity theft. If you are interested in purchasing Identity Theft Alert through Amazon, you can click on the picture of the book at the bottom of the first page of Scammicide.com. Hopefully, the shutdown will end soon and http://www.identitytheft.gov will be up and running again.

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