12 Identity Theft Prevention
Tips
- Identity theft starts with the misuse of
your personal identifying information such as your name, Social Security
number, credit card numbers, or other financial account information.
- Check your credit report from each of the
three major credit bureaus every year.
- Open your credit card bills and bank
statements right away. Review your statements and close unused accounts. Be
aware if bills don’t arrive on time. It may mean that someone has changed
contact information to hide fraudulent charges.
- Don’t carry your Social Security card or PIN
numbers in your purse or wallet because of what can happen if they fall into
the wrong hands.
- Avoid giving any personal information over
the phone, mail, or Internet unless you know who you are dealing with. Give
it to them in person instead.
- Criminals pretend they are collecting money
for victims of a natural disaster. Sometimes they claim to be police
officers and ask for donations.
- Elderly people are frequently targeted in
money scams. Keep a helpful eye for elderly family members and vulnerable
neighbors.
- Make sure that you disconnect your laptop
from a broadband or a shared connection when you are not using it.
- Avoid offers and pop-ups that sound too good
to be true. They want you to enter your information so they can access all
of your personal information.
- Remove your name from mailing lists for
pre-approved credit offers. Pre-approved credit card offers are a target for
identity thieves who steal your mail. Have your name removed from credit
bureau marketing lists. Call toll-free 888-5OPTOUT (888-567-8688).
- Only enter personal information on secure
Web pages that encrypt your data in transit. You can often tell if a page is
secure if "https" is in URL or if there is a padlock icon on the browser
window.
- If you’re going to use a mail box, do
so during or close to the posted pick up hours. Better yet, drop your mail
off at your local post office. Retrieve mail promptly and discontinue
delivery while out of town.
Identity thieves may use a
variety of methods to gain access to your information, including;
1. Skimming-thieves steal credit/debit card numbers by using a special
storage device attached to ATM machines. The device reads the magnetic strip
on your card which thieves use to commit fraud.
2. Phishing-by pretending to be financial
institutions or companies, thieves can send spam or pop-up messages to get
you to reveal your personal information. Be sure your firewall, anti-virus,
and anti-spyware software is up to date. Use identity theft protection.
Never click on links in pop-up windows or in spam e-mail.
3. Changing Your Address-thieves divert your
billing statements to another location by completing a change of address
form.
4. Old-Fashioned Stealing-wallets and purses,
mail, bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, new
checks, tax information, personnel records, or bribe employees who have
access.
5. Pretexting-thieves use false pretenses to
obtain your personal information from financial institutions, telephone
companies, and other sources.
6. Fishing-thieves use string to lower pieces of
cardboard covered with glue down blue mail boxes and open envelopes that
stick looking for personal information they can steal.
7. Dumpster Diving-thieves will go through your
trash looking for bills, credit cards and other nformation. Shred anything
containing your personal information including credit card offers and
“convenience checks” that you don’t use.
8. Information retrieval-thieves desire your hard
drive with personal information on it. Have your hard drive professionally
erased before disposing it.
9. Victim research-thieves access government
registers, Internet search engines, and public records to gain pieces of
your personal information.
10. Remote thievery-thieves can read contactless
or smartcard credit cards remotely with a compact radio frequency device.
11. Shoulder surfing-the thief simply eavesdrops
on transactions you make in public and pick up whatever useful information
you disclose.
12. Computer identity theft-with the use of
computer viruses, hacking, and zer-day attacks, thieves can get personal
information from your computer.
13. Employment scams-these scams advertise a bogus
job and request personal information. Never give out personal identification
information without knowing whom you are dealing with.
14. Social networking-thieves regularly troll
social networking sites to steal personal information so they can use to
commit fraud.
-
Do not sign the
back of your
credit cards.
Instead, put 'PHOTO
ID REQUIRED.
-
When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO
NOT
put the complete account
number
on the 'For' line. Instead, just put the last
four numbers.
The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might
be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing
channels won't have access to it.
-
Put your work phone
# on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that
instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your
work address.
Never have
your SS#
printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you
have It printed, anyone can get it.
-
Place the
contents
of your
wallet
on a
photocopy machine.
Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had
in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and
cancel.. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Carry a photocopy of my
passport when you travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories
about fraud that's committed on us in stealing
a Name, address, Social Security number, credit
cards.
-
File
a police
report
immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen.
This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step
toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
-
Call
the 3
national credit reporting organizations immediately
to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud
line number.
The alert means any
company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they
have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit..
- Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
Trans Union : 1-800-680 7289
Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
- Testimony: I, an attorney, have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more....