It can take years of stress and thousands upon thousands of dollars to clear the wreckage left in your life after an identity theft. While nobody has figured out a way to protect your identity 100%, there are some steps you can take to protect your information:
- Don’t give out personal information over the Internet, phone, or mail, unless you’re certain who you’re talking to and that you can trust them – identity thieves are sneaky! Be especially careful about giving out your social security number. Employers and financial institutions need your SSN for tax reasons, but lots of other people, like the cable company or your landlord, might not do business with you without it. Find out what they do to protect your information or if there’s any way you can avoid giving them your SSN.
- Some identity thieves go through your garbage or steal your mail to find and use private information. Before throwing away anything that contains important personal information – like bills or receipts – shred them. Mail anything that contains sensitive information in big postal boxes at the post office, and inform the postal service if you’re going to be away so mail isn’t left in the open at your house for long periods of time. You can also opt out of pre-screened credit offers (which thieves can use to open cards in your name) by checking out any of the national credit bureaus’ websites.
- If you’re really worried, you can institute a credit freeze – laws about this differ from state to state, but in most states anyone can do this. It won’t affect companies with whom you’re already doing business, but it does prevent anyone else from purchasing your credit report from a reporting agency. This makes it nearly impossible to for an identity thief to open a line of credit in your name. If you want to start a new card, you can temporarily lift the freeze and put it back.
Although there is no fool-proof method to safeguard your identity, by following these simple steps you can potentially save yourself a whole lot of money and hassle.