Preventive Measures

Changing Your Daily Routines: At Home

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In the home, keep your personal information safe, especially if you have roommates (like in a school dormitory) or are having any work done in your home by carpenters and utility personnel. Do not keep Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) together with your checkbook, ATM card, or debit card. Shredding any papers with confidential information before you throw them out is an effective security measure — even for your junk mail.

Anything with an account number, even old ones, can be used in identity theft. This can include pre-screened credit card offers, receipts, cancelled checks, bank statements, tax reports, expired charge cards, medical bills, and insurance documents. Since several identity theft cases are traced to having a purse or wallet being lost or stolen, carry as few cards with identification and personal information as much as possible. Do not take your social security number, and bring as few credit cards as you can. Consider putting different cards in different parts of your purse or knapsack.

You should be wary of any mail, telephone, or Internet request for your personal information and account passwords — it could be “pretexting.” Unless you initiated the contact with a business, do not provide any confidential information — such as your credit card number, social security number, PIN, birth date, or even your mother’s maiden name. Also be very careful of unsolicited e-mails that look as if they are from a legitimate company asking you to enter some personal information at a linked web site; sometimes phoney web sites can look very much like the real thing. Make sure your family members also know not to give out any information to others.

Check your banking and credit statements immediately after you receive them and make sure there is no unexplained charges and such. Keep track of when your bills arrive in the month most companies deliver them on a regular time schedule. If a bill does not arrive on time, call the company to make sure that no changes have been made to your account. Identity thieves will often change the address of a bill so that it will take you longer to figure out that your personal info is being stolen. If you are careful, you may notice the theft earlier.

Security Tip:

Another way that identity thieves grab information is by simply stealing the content of mailboxes. You can use a high security lock mailbox to prevent theft of mail sent to you. Also, consider dropping off your mail inside the post office whenever you send out bills to ensure mail is not intercepted. Thieves will even steal checks sent out by consumers and use chemical washes to remove ink. If you are planning to be away from home and cannot pick up your mail, call the post office to request a vacation hold on your mail, which you can pick-up afterwards.