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Take responsibility for your
financial well being by requesting copies of your credit reports
from the 3 main credit bureaus at least twice a year. Every
three months is recommended
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Do not give out your personal
information over the phone, Internet, or through mail, unless
you know exactly who you are in communications with or using
a reputable company
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When developing an Internet profile,
be careful with what information you provide
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Do NOT carry your social security
card with you, keep it in a safe place, like your home
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Keep your personal information
in your house, in a safe place. Especially if you are having
unknown visitors or guests over
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Deposit your outgoing mail in
a secure mailbox, such as the local post office mail drops.
If you are going on vacation, call the U.S. Postal Service at
1-800-275-8777, and they will hold your mail until you return
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To prevent your identity from
being stolen, SHRED all important documents, such as
charge receipts, copies of credit applications, insurance forms,
physician statements, checks and bank statements, expired charge
cards that you're discarding, and credit offers you get in the
mail. If you do not use the credit card offers that get sent
to you through the mail, you can opt out by calling 1-888-5-OPTOUT
(1-888-567- 8688)
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Carry only credit cards and debit
cards in your wallet that you will be using
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Always mark your credit cards
and ATM card with "see ID" on the back
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Call your credit card, banks,
and phone companies to request that passwords be required to
access information. Try to avoid using common passwords such
as your mother's maiden name and the last four digits of your
social security number
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Ask if your information will
be shared or how it will be disposed of at businesses, such
as your doctor's office, workplace and other places that have
access to your confidential information. If it is shared to
other businesses, ask how you can protect your information from
being given out to others
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Only give out and use your social
security number when absolutely necessary. Try to use other
forms of identification, such as your driver's license. If you
live in a state that uses your social security number as your
driver license number, ask if it can be changed to a random
number and do try to request the same thing for health insurances
that use the social security number as the account number
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Keep track of your billing cycles.
If you notice that you are missing a billing statement from
one month, call the credit card company. It is possible that
a thief has taken one of the statements and changed the address
on the account and has been using that credit card
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Be aware of promotional scams.
Identity thieves may use phony scams over the phone to get your
personal information
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Keep your purse and wallet in
a safe place at work or in any other public locations
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Never leave personal items in
an unattended vehicle
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Cancel all unused and unwanted
credit cards
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When ordering checks, try to
pick them up at the bank, instead of having them mailed to your
house
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If you sell your old computer,
be sure to permanently erase all of the personal files from
the hard drive. Simply deleting this information will only delete
the first character to a file that can be easily recovered by
someone with basic computer knowledge.
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Reduce losses to your credit
cards by reducing the limits on your existing accounts to only
what you need
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Utilize on line banking to reduce
the amount of information that is physically sent through the
mail
