How to Protect Yourself From Identity Theft

Identity theft is a problem that affects all of us and no one is immune nor are they safe from having their identities stolen. Generally ID thieves will open up lines of credit and commit check or credit card fraud in your name, destroying your credit and causing havoc on your financial report card.

Though we alone can not stomp out identity theft there are numerous ways we can protect ourselves from these offenders.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. I urge you to get a free credit report to see where your credit stands and to keep tabs on all your lines of credit. Most people never check their credit reports and often they never realize that lines of credit were opened up in their name until it’s too late and the damage is already done.

2. Once you get your credit report update, I highly advise that you place a security freeze on your accounts. What a security freeze does is that it does not allow credit to be open or extended without a pin number assigned to you, thus adding another layer of security when it comes to protecting your identity. I’ve included a link below this article to point you in the right direction.

3. In addition to ordering a security freeze on your account it is smart to have checks delivered to your bank so that you can pick them up there. Too many times people have checks delivered to their homes automatically when they run out or order checks to be delivered and never get a chance to check their mail to see if the box arrived.
   
   As you can see identity theft is really a terrorist threat that has infiltrated the most cherished resource we all posses and that is our finances. I urge you to take action and take precautionary measures to prevent and protect yourself from identity theft.

Resources

• FINANCIAL PRIVACY NOW.ORG
• NATIONAL CONSUMER PROTECTION WEEK