Top 10 Ways to Prevent Identity Theft
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A close friend of mine recently had her purse stolen. She was the type of person who kept everything in her purse, this includes bank statements (she balances her checkbook during her lunch breaks) and her children’s Social Security numbers plainly written on a piece of paper. Doh!
This prompted me to write this article so that others may learn from her unfortunate incident.
- Do not carry your Social Security number in your wallet or purse. If your social security number is listed on your driver’s license, health insurance card, or checkbook, request to have it reissued with the sensitive information removed.
- Make a list of all your credit card account numbers and bank account numbers with customer service phone numbers, and keep it in a safe place. An easy way to do this is to photocopy or scan the front and back of all the contents of your wallet regularly. This will make it easier to contact the creditors in case of theft or loss, as well as replace items such as your health insurance card and driver’s license.
- Review your credit report annually and correct any mistakes promptly. Credit reports are available for free from http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. At no time should you have to enter a credit card number or provide other type of payment for these services. What I do is to request one credit report from each bureau every four months. The information is fairly common so there’s no need for you to get all three reports at the same time.
Written by MCruz on July 11th, 2006 with 2 comments.
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