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What a Steal!

Protect Yourself from One of the Fastest-Growing Crimes in America—Identity Theft

By Richard A. Sherman

ore than 500,000 people every year become victims of identity theft—a crime that involves acquiring someone’s personal identification information in order to impersonate them. It is currently the No. 1 consumer complaint received by the Federal Trade Commission.

        How does it work? Information such as name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, birth certificate, or mother’s maiden name enables the identity thief to commit numerous forms of fraud. Identify-theft crimes include taking over a victim’s financial accounts, opening new bank accounts, purchasing automobiles, applying and securing loans, credit cards and Social Security benefits, renting apartments, and establishing services with utility and telephone companies. Scary stuff. The good news is that there are things you can do to reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of one of the fastest-growing crimes in America.

Mr. Modem’s Top 10 Tips for Foiling Identity-Theft

1. Remove mail from your mailbox as soon after delivery as possible and do not leave outgoing mail in unsecured mail receptacles. Deposit outgoing mail in post-office collection boxes or at your local post office. 

2. Sign new credit cards as soon as you receive them. Save credit-card receipts and match them (reconcile) against your monthly statement.

3. Do not provide your Social Security number, date of birth, mother’s maiden name or credit-card number by telephone, unless you initiate the call to your financial institution or other reputable entity.

4. Be very selective when it comes to providing information online. If a Web site requires you to provide personal information in order to register, unless it's your personal financial institution's Web site, don't provide the information— or provide fictitious information. Your personal information is rarely anybody's business. Guard it jealously. Don't provide it unless absolutely necessary.

5. Cover the keypad when entering a PIN or long-distance access code at an ATM machine or pay phone. This will prevent "shoulder surfers" from copying your number. Don't carry PIN numbers in your wallet.

6. Never leave receipts at bank ATM machines, bank counters, trash receptacles or gasoline pumps. Keep track of all your paperwork. When you no longer need it, shred it.

7. Shred pre-approved credit applications, credit-card receipts, bills, and other financial information before discarding them in the trash. Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) to reduce the number of unwanted credit-card offers you receive in the mail.

8. Order your personal credit report from the three following credit bureaus each year to check for fraudulent activity or other discrepancies. Most offer three-in-one reports (all three bureaus combined in one report), as well as subscription-based monitoring services to protect against fraud throughout the year.

Equifax: (800-685-1111) www.equifax.com.

Experian: (Formerly TRW) (888-397-3742) www.experian.com

TransUnion: (800-916-8800) www.transunion.com

9. When paying bills by mail, don't write your account number on the outside of an envelope. Even if there’s a place for your account number on a bill-paying envelope, leave it blank. Online banking with any major financial institution is generally considered to be very safe. 

10. Report any lost or stolen credit cards to the issuing authority immediately. To report a stolen or misused Social Security number, call 1-800-269-0271 or visit the Social Security Administration's Web site at www.ssa.gov.

            There are occasions, however, when your best efforts to guard your personal information cannot protect you.  Recently, there have been several instances where the hard drives of computers containing personal information of hundreds of thousands of individuals have been physically stolen. Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, mothers' maiden names, medical records, insurance-policy numbers, etc., were all stolen. If something like this occurs to your records, contact each of the three major credit bureaus referenced in Item 8, and request that a fraud alert be placed on your credit file. The fraud alert will place creditors on notice that they need to contact you before they open any new accounts in your name or make any changes to your existing accounts. counts.

Additional Resources:

1. For more information about ID theft prevention, send a blank e-mail to idtheft@MrModem.net.

2. Federal Trade Commission: www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

3. Identity Theft Prevention:  www.identitytheft.org/

4. If You're a Victim: www.consumer.gov/idtheft/victim.htm

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Richard A. Sherman, a k a Mr. Modem, is a nationally syndicated columnist, whose “Ask Mr. Modem!” column appears in more than 60 publications throughout the U.S. and in Canada. As publisher of the popular “Ask Mr. Modem” weekly newsletter, he provides easy-to-understand, non-technical, computer- and Internet-related answers to questions received from subscribers worldwide. He is the author of eight books, including “Mr. Modem’s Internet Guide for Seniors” (Sybex) and “Ask Mr. Modem,” a collection of hundreds of frequently asked computer and Internet questions received from readers. Richard is a contributing editor to TechTV and host of the daily "Mr. Modem Minute" television segment produced by FOX-TV.

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