Lock Up Your Privates: Securing Your Identity

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With a little time and thought you can protect most of your personal information against identity theft. The first step to securing your identity is changing your habits when handling sensitive information about yourself. Here are a few easy steps to get you started:

• Shred financial documents and any other paper documents that have personal information on them before throwing them out. This includes, bills, bank statements, credit card statements, and credit card offers.
• Protect your Social Security numberat all times. There is no need to carry it in your wallet or print it on your personal checks. If insurance companies, financial institutions, or any other businesses asks to use your Social Security number to identify you, demand that they use some other number.
• Dont’ follow links from unsolicited e-mail or snail mail. Crooks often send phony mail that appears to be from reputable businesses. Even if you think you know who it’s from, type in the web address rather than clicking the link.
• Don’t use personal information in your passwords such as important dates, initials, names, addresses, Social Security numbers, etc. Thieves can find this information out and easily guess your password.
• Store your personal information in a safe place located in your home. This is especially true if you share your home with roommates or have people who work for you in your home. A small safe is usually a “safe bet”.

Of course following these steps to secure your personal data does not guarantee that your identity will never be stolen. You will however have made it a lot harder for a thief because you have eliminated all the easy targets. Thieves are lazy and they will be more inclined to look elsewhere for someone who hasn’t taken the steps listed above.

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