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Preventing Identify Theft

With so many ways to steal your identity, preventing identity theft is indeed a challenging task. According to statistics, an average number of 19 people get victimized by identity theft every minute. As a matter of fact, experts say that identity theft is no longer a question of whether or not you will become a victim but a question of when. However, this does not mean that preventing identity theft from happening to you is impossible. Below are tips on how you can reduce your risks of falling victims into identity theft:

• Shred papers before you throw them to the garbage bin. These days, you can buy a shredder for under twenty bucks. Make sure you shred any document that contains relevant personal information before your discard them. This way, no identity thief will be able to find out important stuff about you even if they rummage through your thrash.
  
• Lock your mailbox. If your trash is a trove for identity thieves, then your mailbox is the gold mine. Just think of all the things that go into your mailbox–credit card statements, health insurance documents, bank notices, etc. If you do not get a locking mailbox soon, identity thieves will find it easy to steal from it.
  
• Guard your outgoing mail. The posts you send are just as important as the ones you receive. As such, you have to protect your outgoing mail as well. If you still pay your bills via snail mail, then consider online payment. Most sites that offer this kind of service have encryption to make sure that no third party will be able to “listen in” the transaction. 
  
• Keep your receipts. Do not just throw credit card receipts away. More often than not, these flimsies have your complete credit card number printed on them. If someone gets hold of these receipts, he can easily sell them to identity thieves for a cheap price. Even though new legislation now requires business owners to truncate credit card numbers, there might still be some who have not kept up with the law. 
  
• Do not just give your Social Security Number away. Keep in mind that your SSN is as good as your name. This means that another individual can easily identify you using this nine-digit number. For this reason, be very cautious with whom you entrust your SSN to. You should be aware that only a few can demand your SSN from you. If an establishment insists that you provide it with your SSN, promptly refuse and go take your business somewhere else.
  
• Do not carry too many cards in your wallet. Losing your wallet is an unfortunate thing, but losing all the information it contains to identity thieves is something even worse. As such, it is best to carry as few cards in your wallet as possible. Likewise, do not carry identification cards that have your Social Security Number printed on them.
  
• Avoid talking about financial matters over mobile phones. Cell phone lines are not always secure and there is a big chance that a third party may be eavesdropping. Keep in mind that you are living in a digital age where people can easily get devices that can monitor communication lines.
  
• Check your credit reports. These days, this can now be done twice a year. You can easily identify if someone else is using your identity to obtain credit if a suspicious entry appeared in your credit report.
  
• Keep an eye on your Social Security statements. If you are already 25 years old and above, you should receive a summary of your earnings from the Social Security Administration. If you have already been working for sometime but are not getting any Social Security statement, you should call the SSA to check if anything is wrong. 
  
• Lock your financial documents away. Just as you would not want your diary or journal to be read by a stranger, you would not want anybody nosing around your financial documents. As such, it would be best if you keep them locked away in a safe or a vault.
  
• Beware of people who claim to be solicitors from financial institutions. If someone calls you and asks for sensitive information, do not be reluctant on hanging up. For the past years, identity thieves have become skilled at pretending to be employees from financial institutions. Unless you are the one who initiated contact with a business establishment, you should not easily trust anybody who calls to ask for your personal information.
  
• Photocopy your cards. Identity theft experts recommend that you secure photocopies of your cards so that it will be easier for you to report theft and obtain replacement cards. Try photocopying both sides of every card you have, including your driver’s license.
  
• Inquire about shredding policies. Nowadays, there is already a law that requires business establishments to dispose records that contain consumer information in a way that no one will be able to get access to them. With this in mind, you should always ask businesses or individuals you transact with about their methods of discarding old client documents. If they do not have one, forget doing business with them.
  
• Guard your debit cards. Do not use your debit cards in situations where you will not be able to monitor the transaction. Unlike credit cards, your debit card holds access to your bank account. So unless you are keen on losing your hard-earned money in one swipe, guard your debit cards closely.
  
• Opt out of telemarketing, junk mails, and solicitations. Telemarketers can be very annoying, most especially if they call you every other day with offers on various things. To cut down the number of solicitations and other offers through phone, you can call the credit bureaus to take your name and number off the marketing lists that they give out to different companies.

 

Further Reading: See below for more information on Identity Theft

Introduction: Identity Theft
Identity Theft And Your Credit
How An Identity Is Stolen
What To Do If You Are A Victim Of Identity Theft