Protection for Identity Theft
29 Mar
The absolute best way to protect yourself from fraud is to limit the exposure of your personal information. For the sixth year in a row, identity theft ranked higher than credit card and debt collection fraud as the most widely known form of consumer fraud. Not just your email solicitations or firewall breaches on your computer but your checks, credit cards and social security number are as risk also.
When you order checks, use your initial and last name so a forger won’t know how to sign your name. Never order checks with your phone number printed on it and when you order checks, order from the bank and pick them up there.
Another precaution you can take is to never sign your credit cards, write on the back “photo ID requires.” Never carry your social security card with you, there is no need. Do not use the same PIN number for all your accounts and never use obvious numbers like your birth date or phone number. You could also take your outgoing mail and mail it from work and shred anything with account numbers before trashing them.