Identity Theft

8 Steps to Reduce Your Exposure to Identity Theft

1. Monitor your credit report.  Many consumers don't even realize their identity has been stolen until they are denied credit due to information on their credit report.
2. Be careful when giving out your personal information.  Before you give out personal information by mail, phone or over the internet, make sure you are dealing with a legitimate business organization.
3. Be careful with your mail.  Don't use an unsecured mailbox when mailing documents containing your personal financial information.  Also, remove mail from your own mailbox promptly.  If you are going on vacation, make sure you put your mail on hold or arrange for someone to pick it up for you while you are gone.
4. Guard your trash.  Many identity thieves have been known to get personal information from your trash.  Be sure to shred any reciepts, copies of applications, bank statements or other documents that might contain personal inforamtion before you throw them away.
5. Avoid giving out your Social Security Number.  Before you give your social security number out, find out why it is needed,  There are legitimate reasons to provide it.  For example, your employer will need it for wage reporting, your bank will need it for tax purposes, and it is required whenever a credit check will be run on your name.
6. Pay attention to billing cycles.  If you are missing a billing statement, it could mean an identity thief has take over your account and changed your billing address.
7. Be careful when shopping online.  Before you transmit account information online, make sure you are at a secure web site.  Look for the icon of a lock in the lower right hand corner of your browser window.
8. Remove your personal information from old computers.  If you sell or recycle an old computer, make sure you use software to wipe your harddrive clean.  Deleting files using your keyboar or mouse does not permanently remove information from your hard drive.

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