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Home > Finance > Personal Finance > Ten Tips For Avoiding Identity Theft
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Ten Tips For Avoiding Identity Theft
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It's important to protect your identity. In fact, the Federal Trade
Commission reports that identity theft costs consumers, businesses and
financial institutions more than $53 billion in one year alone.
But not all identity crimes are the same. There are differences between
identity theft, credit card fraud and check fraud-and the actions you
should take, should you be victimized.
• Credit Card & Check Fraud: This occurs when a criminal steals
your cards or checks and uses them without your authorization.
• Account Takeover: This occurs when a criminal obtains your personally
identifying information such as your Social Security number, to gain
access to, manipulate or use your existing bank accounts or credit card
account.
• Identity Theft: This occurs when a criminal uses all or part of your
identity to establish new bank accounts, loans, credit cards or utility
accounts.
Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself from these crimes. Try these 10 tips:
1. Guard your Social Security number. Never print your Social Security
number on checks and don't reveal the number to anyone other than
creditors or trusted parties such as your employer or health care
provider.
2. Never give your personal identifying information or account numbers
to anyone over the phone or in response to e-mails unless you initiated
the call or the contact and trust the person on the other end. Avoid
revealing this information in public places where you can be overheard.
3. Examine all your credit card and checking account statements for
unauthorized charges. Call your financial institution immediately upon
noticing unauthorized charges or if you notice your card or checks are
missing. In some cases, your liability for unauthorized use is
determined by how quickly you report the transaction or the loss of a
card.
4 Don't let merchants and restaurants take your credit or debit card
out of your sight. This can result in dishonest merchants or their
employees "skimming" your card's magnetic stripe and using it to make
Web purchases or counterfeit cards.
5. Never leave information about yourself lying around in your house,
hotel room or in rental cars. If you can't carry it with you, use the
hotel safe or a locked file cabinet.
6. Purchase a shredder and shred any document with account or personal
identifying information that you don't need to retain for tax purposes.
This includes bank statements, receipts, old checks, tax returns and
credit card solicitations.
7. Mail theft is a major source of identity and account theft. Purchase
a locking mailbox and always mail your payments at a secure mailbox or
post office.
8. Use online banking to reduce the number of paper checks you mail and
the number of paper statements you receive. Choose passwords that are
hard to guess but easy for you to remember. Don't write your online
banking password down. Change your passwords from time to time.
9. Request a free copy of your credit report annually and check it for
accuracy. Look for any loans or credit card accounts that you did not
open. Consider subscribing to a credit-monitoring service that will
notify you if anyone applies for credit in your name.
10. Use payment systems that reduce the number of people who physically
handle your account numbers, checks and personal identifying
information. A paper check has both an account number and personal
identifying information. It is a risky document that passes through the
hands of as many as eight people during the clearing process. If you
write just five checks per week, that creates up to 40 opportunities
for someone to steal your information. Instead of checks, it is less
risky to use a debit card or a secure payment system such as Pay By
Touch, which allows access to your checking account only through
biometric authorization. |
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