You apply sunscreen, use your seat belt, and wear a helmet when you ride a bike, but how often do you think of protecting your identity and personal information? While you may think that identity theft may never happen to you, over 10 million people a year are victims to some sort of identity theft. I should know; I was once one of them.
Identity theft can take many forms, your wallet may be stolen or you may be phished and provide personal information unwittingly while you’re online. In many instances, like mine, you may not even know something is wrong until your identity is already compromised. Weeks before we were to close on a new house, I found out someone had made $18,000 worth of charges in my name in another state. It was only after statements started arriving in my mailbox that I even knew there was a problem.
Taking some simple steps can help prevent you from being a victim. Shred paper statements or anything that has account numbers or personal information on it before disposing of them. And never give out your password, PIN, or social security number to someone you don’t know or you can’t verify has a need for that specific information. You can get more useful information and tips on identity theft prevention in these great online articles: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft, Don’t Let the Grinch Steal your ID, and Phishing: Don’t Get Hooked by Internet Fraudsters. For older members, NEA MB also has information available in the Healthy Wealthy & Wise consumer guide on avoiding scams (see page 19).
And lastly, if you are thinking about taking more proactive steps towards protecting yourself and your identity, check out the NEA ID Theft Protection Program.
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I had my identity stolen or at least borrowed a few years ago. I never would have known that this happened if a collection agency hadn’t sent me a threatening letter. Fortunately, I was able to convince them that, although there were similarities in names, I was not the person they were looking for.
Since then, I’ve gone to annualcreditreport.com to review my credit every year. Dealing with the three credit bureaus was not easy when I found mistakes but I was able to get them cleared up. I’d strongly advise everyone access annualcreditreport.com to check their credit history. Don’t be confused, however, by the advertisements which will provide a credit score and credit monitoring for a steep monthly fee. Annualcreditreport.com is free when it is accessed once a year.
Comment by donmack — July 14, 2010 @ 10:07 pm
Donmack, thanks for the great tip!
Elizabeth
Comment by NEAMB Elizabeth — July 19, 2010 @ 7:34 pm