Consumer Prevention

The old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” has no better application than in the world of identity protection. The frustration of having to repair one’s credit after being treated like a criminal after the fact, would be immediately traded by victims of ID theft each and every time if they could go back in the past and prevent that loss. And it’s really not that hard to do.

Here are a couple of ways to maintain your own protection, using prevention, and making it much harder for thieves to get your identity.

First, don't carry your Social Security card on your person or put it on a personal check. You might as well hand it out on a business card if you do so since checks can go anywhere, including private hands, not to mention your wallet can be stolen at any time. You should only use your social security number when absolutely necessary, and instead use other types of identifiers. And people cannot require you to use it for their services. You are well within your rights to ask for a different number instead, including your driver's license number or health insurance policy number.

Keep and eye on trash and recycling bins, they are never associated with theft prevention. These targets make great opportunities to capture your personal information, so get a good shredder and always 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.

Becareful online the Internet can also leave you vulnerable to online scammers, identity thieves and more. So, place passwords on your credit card, bank, and phone accounts. Avoid using easily available information like your mother's maiden name, birth dates, the last four digits of your Social Security number, phone numbers, any series of consecutive numbers, or a single word that would appear in a dictionary. Instead, use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters to make the strongest passwords.

Choose good passwords when opening new financial accounts, you may find that many businesses still ask for your mother's maiden name. Find out if you can use a personal password instead.

Don't give out personal information on the phone, through the mail, or on the Internet unless you've initiated the contact and are sure you know who you're dealing with. Identity thieves are clever, and may pose as representatives of banks, Internet service providers (ISPs), and even government agencies to get people to reveal Social Security numbers, account numbers, and other identifying information. Every holiday there is a new variation of a phone scam asking for this above information to get the identity of an unsuspecting victim.

Keep your personal information in a secure place at home, especially if you have roommates, employ outside help, or are having work done in your house. Share your personal information only with those family members who have a legitimate need for it. Keep your purse or wallet in a safe place at work; do the same with copies of administrative forms that have your sensitive personal information.

Many states have laws that let consumers “freeze” their credit – in other words, letting a consumer restrict access to his or her credit report. If you place a credit freeze, potential creditors and other third parties will not be able to get access to your credit report unless you temporarily lift the freeze. This is a very helpful prevention if you don’t need to apply for credit often, and it does not affect your score. Alternatively, a fraud alert is another tool for people who’ve had their ID stolen – or who suspect it may have been stolen. With a fraud alert in place, businesses may still check your credit report. Depending on whether you place an initial 90-day fraud alert or an extended fraud alert, potential creditors must either contact you or use what the law refers to as “reasonable policies and procedures” to verify your identity before issuing credit in your name.

Ultimately, there is no 100% protection from identity theft, especially in today’s technology-driven world. Is it really possible to be 100% protected against the average cold? Of course not but, using these simple common sense approaches to your lifestyle can raise your level of prevention. To drastically minimize the cost of risk you can also purchase identity theft insurance or monitoring. It won't deter identity thieves, but it can in certain circumstances, minimize losses if an identity theft occurs.

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