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Don't Lose Your Good Name
Protecting Your Family from Identity Theft By Cara Stevens
2. Secure personal information in your home, especially if you have visitors, roommates or service personnel working unsupervised in your home.
3. Select secure passwords for any account tied to your personal information. Secure passwords do not contain your mother's maiden name, consecutive numbers, your birth date or a sequence from your Social Security number. A secure password should contain at least six digits and consist of a combination of numbers and letters.
4. Mail letters at the post office or in a locked mailbox and promptly remove incoming mail from your mailbox.
5. Protect your trash from dumpster divers by shredding personal information before discarding it in an unsecured trash bin.
6. Keep your wallet or purse locked up or in your possession at all times while at work.
7. Do not give any personal information over the phone, and keep a wary eye out for phone scams and phony offers through the mail.
8. Keep your Social Security number (SSN)as private as possible by keeping your card in a safe place at home, and using other identifying numbers wherever possible. "Our advice is to only give the SSN if it is absolutely necessary," says Jordana Beebe, communications director for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "Folks need to be conscientious and question when their SSN is asked for."
9. Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) to opt out of pre-screened credit card offers. (They will ask for your SSN, and that may seem like a catch-22, but this is a case where it's OK to give that information, says Beebe. "The opt out number and the credit reporting bureaus are heavily regulated by the Federal Trade Commission," she says, so your number will be put to good use.)
The first step is to alert all three major credit reporting agencies listed above and place a fraud alert on your credit reports to keep thieves from opening any new accounts or creating any new activity in your name.