Protecting yourself from identity theft

Identity theft is one of the most personally insidious things that can happen to an individual. The FTC estimates that currently there are about 9 million new cases every year. Everyone likes to think that they are much too savvy to fall victim to identity theft but chances are, if it hasn't already happened to you, it has happened to someone you know.

There are some things that you can and should do to lessen your chances of falling victim to these predators and thus protecting yourself from identity theft.

Never give out personal information

We all know better than to leave our social security card laying around or giving out our credit card number to strangers over the phone but what about to seemingly legitimate vendors on the internet. There are many bogus websites and web vendors who will take your information and use it to empty your bank accounts and also set up new accounts in your name without your permission.

Check your credit report

Your best safeguard against identity theft is to be vigilant in protecting your credit. You need to get frequent copies of your credit reports. There are three major credit reporting agencies, you are entitled to one free credit report from each every year.

That means that if you check every four months you can do this without charge. If you want to better protect yourself, it might be wise to pay for more frequent checks or to be notified if there is any significant action on your credit report, you can get your free credit report from:

• http://www.equifax.com Equifax
• http://www.experian.com-Experian
• http://www.transunion.com  TransUnion

Credit Karma is also free and easy to access. It is just not as detailed as the other three but can be accessed as often as needed. 

Become a shredder

Be very careful what you throw into your garbage. Once you put your garbage at the street it is available for anyone who wants to rummage through it. If you are throwing away credit card receipts, bank statements, check stubs or any piece of paper that may have personal information on it about you, you might as well hand it to identity thieves. If you don't currently own a shredder this needs to be something that you invest in. You need to have a shredder that cross shreds so that there is no way to be able to put the pieces back together. Shred all credit card offers and anything that might be used by a thief to steal your identity.

Be wary of Phishing

There are many scams out there now to steal your identity on the Internet. If you have ever done any business with PayPal chances are you will be getting a phishing scam letter from someone telling you that there is a problem with your PayPal account. It looks like an official letter from PayPal, but it isn't. If you follow this link and give them your information they are going to empty your PayPal account and/or use your account to purchase all sorts of things.

You may also get an email from your credit card company telling you that they need you to verify your mother's maiden name, this is another scam. Most people don't consider their mother's maiden a personal record but since it is used by most credit card companies to verify who you are, it is indeed a vital piece of information that can and will be used against you if it gets into the wrong hands.

In these days of easy credit and Internet shopping it has become even more important that you are always on your guard and if you get a bad feeling about someone or something don't give out any information. Protecting your identity from theft may seem like a lot of work but compared to what will be involved in repairing the damage done by theft, it is minimal.