How to Greatly Reduce Your Chances of Identity Theft

Every time you read of someone having their identity stolen, you get an uneasy feeling, yet are not really sure if you should be doing anything. After all, what can you do? Actually, quite a bit...

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Telephone
• Computer with internet connection
• Envelopes and stamps

1. Get a copy of your credit report. Most if not all states now require that each resident is entitled to one free report per year. Review the report and follow up on any reported loan or amount owing that is unfamiliar, no matter how small. Even better, subscribe to one of the credit alerts (cost is usually less than $10.00 per month)

2. Place a credit lock on your account. Briefly, this will prevent anyone from accessing your credit report (almost always a prerequisite before a loan or credit line is issued). This will be a small inconvenience, since you will have to go through extra steps, usually in writing, in order for a credit report to be issued. Contact each of the three credit-reporting bureaus (resources below) for information and fees for placing a credit lock (also called a credit freeze) on your accounts.

3. Reduce unwanted telephone calls. Use the online registry - National Do Not Call Registry (link in resources below). Register both your cell phone and your land lines. This will not only reduce soliciting phone calls, but will reduce the chance that you will get a phishing phone call. I would urge you to especially encourage your elderly parents to register their numbers on this registry.

4. If you do receive an unwanted phone solicitation, always state this: "Please remove my name from your calling list". They are now obligated to remove your name, and may be subject to fines if they call again.

5. Add your name to the do-not-mail list to greatly reduce junk mail (and therefore opportunities for release of your personal info):
   Mail Preference Service
   PO Box 282
   Carmel, NY 10512
   (see online link in resources)

6. Greatly limit your sources of credit. Don't apply for a credit card at the store entrance just because you'll get a free widget for applying. The more applications floating around with your vital and private information, the more exposure you have to identity theft.

7. Be protective about your Social Security number. When a doctor's office, employment application, or other questionnaire asks for your number, be certain that they actually need it at that time, not just "to be on file." Let them know that you will gladly supply the number when and if it is actually needed.

8. Never give out credit card, bank, or other personal identity information over the phone unless you have placed the call and you are absolutely certain that you are speaking with a legitimate company that has a definite need for the information. If someone you don't recognize has called you and is requesting the information, tell them you will call back. Then hang up, look up the number of the company, and call them.

9. Any "give away", "contest", "sweepstakes", etc. that requires you to pay a processing fee, shipping and handling, or other payment is not very likely to be legitimate. This goes triple if you don't even remember entering a contest and receive a phone call or email that "YOU'VE WON!" Hang up, hit delete, or walk away.

10. Never click on a link from an email and then enter your passwords or confidential information. If a bank, credit card company, eBay, PayPal, or other such company has sent an email with a request that you log into your account and change or review something, then close the email and use your browser to enter the website in your normal method. Don't copy and paste the email provided address into your browser. Most phishing links appear perfectly legitimate but will have a subtle difference that leads you to the devious site.

11. When you are finished working with an online bank account, always click the "log off" button. Don't just close the browser. Closing the browser does not always automatically log you off of the account. Most if not all banks will have a "time out" feature that logs you off after so many minutes of activity, but in those few precious minutes, you could find your bank account emptied.

12. Don't save your bank account log in information in your browser's password storage. Manually key in the password each time you log on.

13. Put some thought into your passwords, using characters, upper case letters, and numbers in the mix. If you absolutely insist on using a word that might be commonly guessed, then try entering it backwards and sticking a number or character or uppercase letter on each end or in the middle. For example, you just want to use your name, Jane Smith, then use 1enaj2 or #hthimsJ*. That is far safer than JaneSmith or JSmith.

14. Use different passwords for each application. Change them often.

15. When shopping or in the store parking lot, never leave your purse unattended in the cart for even a moment. Many purses are stolen when the shopper steps away from the cart. Many more are stolen in the parking lot when the shopper turns and leans in the car to unload the purchases.

16. Be alert to approaching people and cars when in a parking lot or on the sidewalk. In my area, several purses have been stolen when a car drives close to the woman and then a passenger or the driver leans out, grabs the purse from the woman's arm, and speeds away. One victim even sent an email to her friends advising them to keep their keys in a secure pocket or even in their hand rather than their purse, just in case this would happen.

17. Use your shredder for any document that has any personal information. If you don't have one, try an alternative, such as burning the papers (assuming you have a safe place to burn them - and no, the office wastebasket is not a safe place), or tearing the papers into tiny pieces and then throwing the pieces into multiple, separate wastebaskets. Another alternative is to "gross it up" by having a separate waste receptacle for confidential papers and kitchen waste. Tear up the papers, drop them in the receptacle and then dump the coffee grinds, hamburger grease, dinner scraps, etc., right on top. This will at least discourage potential thieves.

18. Limit the checks you write to people or businesses you don't know. When you hand over that check, you are also handing over your bank account and routing transit number.

19. Use caution at ATM machines and any time you need to key in a PIN number. Most cell phones have camera and video capability now and the frumpy grandma in line behind you may not be chatting on her cell phone ... she might be recording a picture of your card account number and PIN.

20. Don't write your PIN number on the back of your bank card. (Did I really need to say this one?)

21. For online shopping, register with a payment processing service like PayPal. PayPal keeps your data secure and offers guarantees if your account is ever violated. The merchant that you purchase from will never see your card number, let alone your card's expiration date and security code.

22. Never, ever agree to "process rebates" or "take payments for a foreign company" or any other item where essentially you are asked to cash checks or money orders and then send the money to another person. Virtually all of these are scams that will give you fake money orders. You will not even know they are fake until the store that cashed them sends the police to collect you and their money.

23. Ok, I'll only say this once: There is no Nigerian princess who desperately needs your help to get her inheritance. Neither is there an European widow who must have your help moving her dead husband's money out of the country, nor a foreign attorney who has not been able to find any heirs for a substantial estate. Delete these messages or better still, report them to your ISP as spam.

Resources

• Wikipedia article on Do Not Call Registry
• Equifax 800-685-1111
• Experian 800-682-7654
• TransUnion 800-888-4213
• Simple Life Corp - Simple Living in a Complex World
• Simple Life Blog - The Simple Path to Peace
• Reduce Unwanted Junk Mail
• Ecocycle - great resourceto Stop the Junk Mail Monster

[buffalomike]

on 1/16/2010 Excellent information to prevent identity theft. It can happen so easily. Recommended.

[ladyofthelake]

on 12/4/2009 Great job on this article. You realy covered a lot of information. I like to burn the junk mail credit offers. Rec. and 5*

[sonni57]

on 11/28/2009 Good information on identity theft I didn't know much.

[ccharles1]

on 11/24/2009 This article gives very insightful, valuable information; illustrates how easy and "simple" one's life can become with subtle changes in habits.
The problem of identify theft is a crime we all would do well not to ignore!
Excellent - I give it five stars!