Preventing Identity Theft
How to Prevent ID
Theft
Here are some
important tips on how to prevent Identification Theft, for shoppers and
merchants.
How can I prevent identity theft
from happening to me?
As with any crime, you can't
guarantee that you will never be a victim, but you
can minimize your risk. By managing your personal information
widely, cautiously and with an awareness of the issue, you can help
guard against identity theft.
- Don't give
out personal information on the phone, through the mail or over
the Internet unless you've initiated the contact or are sure you
know who you're dealing with. Identity thieves may pose as
representatives of banks, Internet service providers (ISPs) and
even government agencies to get you to reveal your SSN, mother's
maiden name, account numbers, and other identifying information.
Before you share any personal information, confirm that you are
dealing with a legitimate organization. You can check the
organization's Web site as many companies post scam alerts when
their name is used improperly, or you can call customer service
using the number listed on your account statement or in the
telephone book.
- Don't carry
your SSN card; leave it in a secure place.
- Secure
personal information in your home, especially if you have
roommates, employ outside help or are having service work done in
your home.
- Guard your
mail and trash from theft:
-
Deposit outgoing mail in post office
collection boxes or at your local post office, rather than in an
unsecured mailbox. Promptly remove mail from your mailbox. If
you're planning to be away from home and can't pick up your
mail, call the U.S. Postal Service at 1-800-275-8777 to request
a vacation hold. The Postal Service will hold your mail at your
local post office until you can pick it up or are home to
receive it.
-
To thwart an identity thief who may pick
through your trash or recycling bins to capture your personal
information, tear or shred your 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 pre-screened credit card
offers you receive in the mail, you can opt out by calling
1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567- 8688). Please note that you will be
asked for your Social Security number in order for the credit
bureaus to identify your file so that they can remove you from
their lists and you still may receive some credit offers because
some companies use different lists from the credit bureaus?
lists. For more information, see
How can I
prevent companies from using my
personal information for marketing?
- Carry only
the identification information and the number of credit and debit
cards that you'll actually need.
- Place
passwords on your credit card, bank and phone accounts. Avoid
using easily available information like your mother's maiden name,
your birth date, the last four digits of your SSN or your phone
number, or a series of consecutive numbers. When opening new
accounts, you may find that many businesses still have a line on
their applications for your mother's maiden name. Use a password
instead.
- Ask about
information security procedures in your workplace or at
businesses, doctor's offices or other institutions that collect
personally identifying information from you. Find out who has
access to your personal information and verify that it is handled
securely. Ask about the disposal procedures for those records as
well. Find out if your information will be shared with anyone
else. If so, ask if you can keep your information confidential.
- Give your
SSN only when absolutely necessary. Ask to use other types of
identifiers when possible. If your state uses your SSN as your
driver's license number, ask to substitute another number. Do the
same if your health insurance company uses your SSN as your
account number.
- Pay
attention to your billing cycles. Follow up with creditors if your
bills don't arrive on time. A missing bill could mean an identity
thief has taken over your account and changed your billing address
to cover his tracks.
- Be wary of
promotional scams. Identity thieves may use phony offers to get
you to give them your personal information.
- Keep your
purse or wallet in a safe place at work as well as any copies you
may keep of administrative forms that contain your sensitive
personal information.
- Cancel all
unused credit accounts.
- When
ordering new checks, pick them up at the bank, rather than having
them sent to your home mailbox.
Source: FTC
The FTC works for the
consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business
practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help
consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a
complaint or to get
free information on
consumer issues, visit
www.ftc.gov or call
toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The
FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other
fraud-related complaints into the
Consumer Sentinel Network, a secure online database and investigative tool available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
