Your mailbox is a valuable resource for identity thieves. Remember that ID thieves get a lot of their information through plain old physical theft. Your mailbox is no exception. It's often the easiest way for an identity thief to acquire personal information and access to your credit. Fortunately, there are a few easy things you can do to greatly reduce the risk.

First off, collect your mail promptly. Seems simple enough, right? If you look at your daily habits, however, you may find that you don't collect your mail until you've settled in at home for the day. Instead, grab it and take it inside immediately. Even a little step like this can help a lot. Although many ID thieves are professionals who use careful planning, just as many commit crimes on the spur of the moment, whenever they see an easy target. It only takes a moment (while you're out getting groceries, for instance) for  a frauster out for a stroll to grab mail right from your porch and take off. Even if there's nothing he can use, you'll lose your mail. If it's at all possible, get a locked mailbox.

If you're away and can't collect your mail, get a friend or neighbor to do it for you, or get the postal service to hold it while you're gone. In the past, this was prudent advice because it kept burglars from being able to tell that you were out of the house for an extended period of time. Nowadays they don't even need to kick in your front door to rip you off for thousands of dollars.

If you live in an area where the postal service will pick up mail from your box . . . don't use the service for bills, payments or any other financial trnasaction. Use a drop box. The ones inside the post office are best, as thieves may break into streetcorner boxes.In fact, you should keep your financial dealings over the mail to a minimum. If you can pay in person, do so, and don't ask financial institutions to mail you checks, bank statements or other personal financial data. If you must receive this kind of mail, make sure you know it's coming and follow up if it's late. This is especially important for government mail (thieves target it by appearance), and really, really important for benefit cheques, for obvious reasons. 

Aside from taking these everyday precuations, do what you can to stop the flow of junk mail, especially credit card and loan offers. Pre-approved credit card applications are a great way for identity thives to get a foothold on your finances. Sign up with the Direct Marketing Association to get your name taken off their members' mailing lists at https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/proto1.php .

If you follow these tips, you won't completely lock out the risk of identity theft but you will make it harder for fraudsters to get to you using one of the most common sources of stolen personal data. Identity theft prevention services like  Lifelock can do some of this for you and will combine it with other effective measures.