KNOWLEDGE CENTER
- History of Identity Theft
- A Look at identity Theft Statistics
- Credit Monitoring: Protecting Yourself Against Identity Theft
- Understanding Identity Theft: How an ID Thief Gets Your Information
- Phishing Scams: Understanding and Protecting yourself
- Identity Theft and Your Rights
- The Internet and Identity Theft: What You Must Need to Know
- Preventing Identity Theft: Protecting Personal Information
- Common Identity Theft Scams
- Suspicious Signs and Signals
- A Look at Credit Card Fraud: Identity Theft In the 21st Century
IDENTITY THEFT LINKS
Preventing Identity Theft
Carry Limited Personal and Financial Information
If you are like many men and women, you keep your wallet or purse filled with a proverbial treasure trove of financial and personal information. Odds are that when you are out and about in the world you have with you a drivers license, multiple credit cards, your Social Security card and perhaps even passwords and codes to different accounts. The reality is that when it comes to preventing identify theft it is actually important for you to limit the amount of personal and financial information that you carry along with you.
The primary reason that it is important to limit the amount of personal and financial information you carry with you as a means of preventing identity theft actually is rather simple. The reality is that if your purse or wallet ends up lost or stolen and in the hands of an identity thief, that crook literally can go to town. In one instant, the identity thief will have all of the information that he or she will need to misappropriate your identity instantly.
With this in mind, you may be wondering what items you should carry with you when you are away from Home as part of your strategy of preventing identity theft. The fact is that you should take along your drivers license or identification card. Moreover, you can carry one credit card with you as well. When all is said and done, you have no need to carry anything else with you.
Definitely leave your Social Security card at Home. The only time that you ever need to remove your Social Security card from your Home is when you have started a new job and you need to demonstrate that you legally are eligible for employment.
While you may find yourself struggling to remember passwords, you absolutely cannot write those down and put them into your wallet or purse. Doing so can have disastrous consequences if an ID thief gets his or her hands on your debit cards and your passwords.
In the end, when it comes to preventing identity theft, you need to understand that you actually are going to have to sacrifice convenience for security. You will need to sacrifice convenience for the peace of mind of knowing that you are doing everything necessary as a means of preventing identity theft.
