Preventing Identity Theft

According to the Federal Trade Commission, more than a half-million Americans will have their identities stolen this year.  This can result in great anxiety and expense for the victim.  In fact, the average person will spend an average of 175 hours and $800 just to clear their names.  Although there is no fool-prove way of guaranteeing that this will not happen to you, there are a few precautions you can take to safeguard against identity theft.

1) Actually look at your credit card and bank account statements, don’t just glance over them quickly or just pass them along to your spouse to pay off. This is usually the first place unauthorized activity will show up.

2) Don't give out personal information on the phone, through the mail, or online unless you initiate the contact or know the caller. Thieves will often pose as bank representatives, Internet service providers, government agents, etc. to try and get you to reveal personal information.

3) Tear or shred any documents that contain personal information. These include credit card receipts, insurance forms, physician and bank statements, and even credit card offers.

4) Deposit outgoing mail directly into post office boxes, not in your own mailbox. A shocking number of thieves simply take your mail out of your mailboxes to obtain your personal information.  Also, if you're going on vacation, place a hold on your mail at the post office.

5) Don’t carry your Social Security card with you.  Keep it in a safe place, and only carry a minimum number of ID and credit cards with you.

6) Cancel any credit cards you don't need or use. Be sure to tell the lender to note the card as "cancelled at the cardholder's request."

7) Don't pre-print your Social Security or driver's license numbers on your checks.

8) Only give out your Social Security number when absolutely necessary. Ask to use other identifiers when possible.

9) Order a copy of your credit reports once a year to verify their accuracy.

10) The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of your first name) and your last name put on them.  If someone takes your checkbook they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials.

11) When writing checks NEVER put a complete account number on the FOR line.  In fact, you never really need to put anything at all on this line.  If you prefer to write something, put only the last four digits of the account number.

12) Print your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone.  If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address.

13) Photocopy the contents of your wallet, make sure and copy both sides of each license, credit card, etc.