Compliments of local financial planner Jeff Sorensen, here are some suggestions on how to minimize the chances of identity theft, based partly on recommendations from the Federal Trade Commission at Identify Theft Information.
10 Steps to Protect Your Identity
1. Pay the fee-often reversible if you maintain a sufficient balance-to see your checks (viewing them online may be free). Even a cursory review should detect cases where a forger has never seen your signature or handwriting.
2. Never have your Social Security Number printed on your checks. Whenever absolutely necessary, write it on. In general, resist supplying your Social Security Number.
3. Put your work phone number instead of your home number on your checks.
4. Consider printing a Post Office Box or work address instead of home address on your checks.
5. Have your new checks delivered to the bank for your pick-up, so they can’t be stolen in transit.
6. Thank the still-too-few merchants who require picture ID when you use a card.
7. Avoid carrying all your cards with you.
8. When writing checks to pay your credit card accounts, include only the last four digits of the account number on the “For” line. The credit card company knows the rest, but not everyone processing your check will have access to it.
9. Buy an inexpensive shredder and shred all information that has an account number (like those extra “checks” your credit card company keeps sending you) or Social Security number on them.
10. Photocopy the contents of your wallet, including both sides of each license, credit card, etc. Keep the copies in a safe place, so you have all the phone numbers to call and account numbers to cancel. When traveling, take a second photocopy of this information along with a photocopy of your passport-separate from your wallet, of course.
What to do if your wallet is stolen and/or you suspect identity theft has occurred
The following recommendations are also from the Federal Trade Commission.
1. Immediately contact the fraud department of any one of the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit file, which requests creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or making any changes to your existing accounts. As soon as one major bureau confirms your fraud alert, the other two are automatically notified to place their own. Once the alert is placed, you may order a free copy of your credit report from all three.
Equifax
(800) 525-6285
www.equifax.com
P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta GA 30374-0241
Experian
www.experian.com
P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Trans Union
www.transunion.com
Fraud Victim Assistance Division
P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
2. Close all accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or have been opened by the thieves.
3. When dis puting new unauthorized accounts use the ID Theft AffidavitID Theft Affidavitavailable from the FTC.
4. File a police report. Get a copy of the report to submit to your creditors and others who may require proof of the crime.
5. File your complaint with the FTC. They maintain a database of identity theft cases used by law enforcement agencies for investigations. Filing a complaint also helps the FTC to learn more about methods of identity theft and victims’ problems so that they can better assist everyone.
6. Call the Social Security Administration fraud line at (800) 269-0271.
And, of course, clients of the firm should always call us in matters like identity theft so that we can assist at (805) 778-0600.
Identity Theft is so rampant these days because it is quite easy to harvest information from someone else.*-:
identity theft is rampant both in online and offline settings. better be careful,”;