Identity theft may be the
least known but the fastest-growing crime
in America. It is certainly a very
profitable one. But what exactly is it?
In general identity
thieves take pieces of your personal
identifying information, such as your
name, address, phone number, social
security number, driver's license number,
date of birth, credit and bank account
numbers -- any information you would use
to verify your identity. Then use this
information to open accounts (credit
cards, cell phones, car loans, etc..) and
run your credit into the ground.
How can you protect
yourself from identity theft? Follow the
simple tips below:
1. Minimize the content of
your wallet our purse. Carry only a few
credit cards and nothing with your social
security number on it (this may be a
little tough to do in those states that
foolishly use your social security number
as your driver's license number).
2. Be sure your mailbox at home is
securely locked or use a post office box.
3. Have your name and address removed from
the phone book.
4. Take a look at your credit reports
every year or so. Click the link to
get a free copy of
your credit report. If you have
some accounts you know nothing about, you
may be a victim.
5. Have the credit bureaus note in your
file that no account is to be opened
unless the credit grantor calls you at a
specified number and gets your okay. This
is best done by certified mail, return
receipt requested, to each credit bureau,
even if you make the initial contact with
a bureau by phone.
6. Tell the credit bureaus that you do not
want your file accesses for prescreened
credit offers. Those "you have already
been approved" junk mail offers you get
come from 'prescreening' of credit
reports. The card company tells the credit
bureau it wants a list of, say, all folks
in Zip Code 11111 who make over $40,000 a
year and have not gone bankrupt in the
last three months and who have more than
two kids. Then the solicitations are sent
out (to the joy of identity thieves who
know how easy it is to steal one of those
solicitations, change the address to a
mail drop rented by the thief, send it in,
and get some very useful plastic in the
mail).
Some states, such as California, require
the bureaus to do this on request. But
there is no harm in asking in any state.
Of course, then you will no longer get
those pre-approved applications for credit
cards you don't need in the mail.
7. Have very few open credit card account.
Keep track of when the bills for each
account you use are supposed to come in.
Stealing account statements from the mail
or mailboxes and using the information
inside to tell the card company to change
the address to a crook controlled address
is a common method of seizing one or more
of your credit accounts. If you don't
realize that you have not gotten a bill,
you won't have any way to quickly find out
you are a victim.
8. Be very cautious about
refusing to give out your social security
number, driver's license number, mother's
maiden name, or other personal
identification information. This
information can be the key to your credit
files for an identity thief.
9. Ask the credit bureaus
to take your credit information off-line.
Almost all credit reports can be accessed
by any subscriber to the system. And there
are millions of subscribers at used car
lots, banks, credit unions, and retailers.
But when a report is off-line it can't be
accessed without your okay. The bureaus
are less than eager to do this for an
average person because it means that the
manual file can't be accessed by the
profitable (for the bureaus) computer
method, but only by written request with
the credit report going out in the mail,
which is more costly for the bureau.
Click the link to
get a free copy of
your credit report.
