15 Tips to Prevent Identity Theft

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There at least 99 things to know about how to prevent identity theft. Below is a good starting point.

Tips:

  1. Watch your bank accounts online and examine your statements frequently.
  2. Opt out of preapproved credit cards. Go to https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t to get started.
  3. Check your credit for free at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp. You can do this up to three times a year.
  4. Dispute unauthorized credit accounts with the issuing lender.
  5. Don’t leave keys, purses, wallets, mobiles or laptops in your car or unlocked gym locker. Keep your stuff with you, or at least lock it up and hide it.
  6. Keep purses and wallets close. When you aren’t looking, thieves will steal a credit card from your open purse and you might not know it for days.
  7. Watch your credit card statements as closely as your bank statements, especially after you use your card.
  8. Watch clerks at checkout to make sure they aren’t double-swiping your credit card and skimming your information off the magnetic strip.
  9. Beware of ATM skimmers. Poke around the card slot and make sure there isn’t an extra façade that can be pulled off.

10. Check fraud happens when criminals get hold of your check routing and account numbers at the bottom of the check. Again, watch your bank statements.

11. Put your mail in a blue post office-issued mailbox or at the post office—not in your own mailbox with the flag up.

12. Never wire money to strangers online. If you are buying something off classifieds or receive an email or phone call from someone, even a family member in distress, it is probably a scam.

13. Lock down your PC with antivirus, antispyware, antiphishing and a firewall.

14. Update your digital devices’ operating systems critical security patches.

15. Invest in identity theft protection. You can and should do all of the above, but you still can be victimized because some big company gets hacked.

 

Your Government Can’t Protect You From Identity Theft

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I’ve always marveled at the law enforcement motto, “To Serve and Protect.” While honorable, it’s essentially a slogan that presents our government representatives’ best intentions because in reality they can’t proactively 100 percent protect us the way we believe or expect them to do so. “Where’s a cop when you need one?” people say.

But it’s really not law enforcement’s job to protect everyone, everywhere, all day. We’d need a cop in every driveway all day long to really protect us. And even our government at its highest levels can’t effectively do the job in fully protecting us.

The ParamusPost does a fine job summing it up by pointing out, “The US federal government is taking steps to help consumers protect their identities. In 2006, the President’s Task Force on Identity Theft was created. This organization is tasked with the job of improving law enforcement abilities, improving consumer education, and setting governmental safeguards to protect against identity theft. Additionally, the Fair Credit Reporting Act provides consumers with access to information contained on credit reports, which were once off-limits to the average consumer. This law also puts requirements in place for accuracy in reporting, such as the ability for a consumer to report inaccuracies and potential identity theft to the credit bureaus. While this is a good start, it is ultimately up to the consumer to take actions to prevent the loss of personal identity.”

Yes, ultimately this is your problem.

Here’s what I suggest:

  1. Shred. If it’s got your name, account numbers or address, don’t throw it away—destroy it.
  2. Lock your mailbox. Buy a locking mailbox so your mail is safe from theft.
  3. Antivirus. Protect your PC with all the software necessary to prevent spyware.
  4. Identity theft protection. Invest in services that will monitor your identity and restore it in the event it’s stolen.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention. For Robert’s FREE ebook, text SECURE Your@emailaddress to 411247. Disclosures.

Caller ID Spoofing Effective in Identity Theft

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Caller ID spoofing is when a telephone’s caller ID displays a number that does not belong to the person calling. The telephone network is tricked into displaying this spoofed number as a result of flaws in caller ID technology. Caller ID spoofing can look like the call is coming from any phone number. People inherently trust caller ID simply because they are unaware that caller ID spoofing exists.

WKYC in Ohio reports, “Police want residents to be aware that scammers are using caller ID spoofing in an attempt to trick them into thinking they are talking to a police officer.” Recently an elderly resident contacted police to report a possible scam. According to the report, “She said she was contacted by someone claiming to be an FBI agent who wanted personal information in order to award a $600,000 sweepstakes. He told her she could call her local police department to confirm it was not a scam. As an officer was speaking with the resident, she received another call that came up on caller ID with the name and phone number of a North Canton police detective.”

Pretty scary and very effective. Most people, including me, rely on caller ID for most or all calls. When the name or number of a familiar person appears, I’m likely to say “Hello John” and expect John’s voice. But by trusting this technology, we open ourselves up to scams like the one above.

To avoid this scam, simply recognize it exists, and be on guard in situations where you don’t recognize the voice or the caller is offering a reward, winnings or anything that seems out of place, too good to be true or in some way shape or form surprises you.

Hang up the phone on scammers—especially when they keep calling back. Eventually they will stop when they realize you’re not an idiot. Identity theft protection can’t protect you here, but being savvy will.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention. For Robert’s FREE ebook, text SECURE Your@emailaddress to 411247. Disclosures.

Will Obamacare Lead to Identity Theft?

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The fear mongers and Obamacare haters make a scary point and want you to know that as soon as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act goes live, your identity will be at risk and, more than likely, stolen. Forbes reports in regard to what’s called the Obamacare-mandated “data hub” in which personal records are exchanged among seven different agencies—the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the Veterans Health Administration, the Department of Defense, the Office of Personnel Management and the Peace Corps.”

Obamacare is required to protect our data under the National Institute of Standards and Technology guidelines. However, naysayers believe the administration will open the system without proper security certification because Obama will offer a waiver.

It is scary enough that seven different agencies will have the data on file—and scarier still that the possibility of a waiver being granted is very possible due to the enormity of the project.

Right now, pre-Obamacare, your personal identifying information is being shared or stored amongst dozens or potentially hundreds of organizations that you have interacted with since birth. So what’s the big deal with another seven? Unfortunately, it’s another touch-point where your information can be viewed, hacked and stolen.

My suggestion: Don’t worry about it. Seriously, don’t worry about it. However, you must DO something about it and I have two suggestions:

  1. Get a credit freeze. Search “credit freeze” and the name of all three credit bureaus separately. Freeze your credit. But that’s not enough.
  2. Get identity theft protection. I have a credit freeze and identity theft protection. With these multiple layers of protection, my data is next to useless to a thief.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention. For Robert’s FREE ebook, text SECURE Your@emailaddress to 411247. Disclosures.

Children Heading Back to School Face Identity Theft Risk

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This isn’t rocket science. We have millions of children registering for schools in person, online, over the phone, via email and through the mail. All of these transactions involve personal identifying information including names, addresses and Social Security numbers.

All of these exchanges of data can be breached in some way by those on the inside of these organizations, hackers from the outside or simply from someone stealing mail or going through the organization’s trash.

The problem here is that once a bad guy gets hold of the child’s Social Security number, he or she can then open new lines of credit under that child’s identity simply by lying and saying the child is 18 years or older. With that information in the wrong hands, that child will face serious issues as a young adult when he/she is starting a new life and career out of high school.

Dallas News reports, “Criminals create a synthetic ID by combining a child’s Social Security number with a different date of birth to fabricate an identity that can be used to commit fraud. ‘Synthetic identities are very difficult to detect,’ reported a Javelin study. Guarding your child’s Social Security number is critical to protecting his or her identity.”

Guarding a child’s Social Security number is like guarding a credit card number. It’s bad advice and doesn’t work. You can’t protect numbers once they are handed over to anyone. Once in the wild, they are vulnerable.

Best advice:

  1. Apply for a fraud alert through the three credit bureaus every quarter to six months to confirm no credit report has been issued. However, this may or may not produce a report based on synthetic identity theft—and it’s also time consuming.
  2. Invest in a family identity theft plan that also protects your children. The service will watch their Social Security numbers in the wild, and a good service will repair any damage done if the theft isn’t caught up front.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention. For Robert’s FREE ebook, text SECURE Your@emailaddress to 411247. Disclosures.