Discover Practical Ways to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft | Personal Finance

By StanlyQ.Morgansten
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Have you ever thought about what police officers do to protect themselves from identity theft? I wondered this myself. I am now about to reveal to you exactly what they told me "off the record".

In 2006, there were approximately 12 Million cases of identity theft reported in the U.S. This translated to about 6.3 billion dollars in costs to consumers, people like you and me. When I first heard these numbers, I was in shock. Like most people, I was totally unaware of just how large this problem was becoming. This led me to ask one of my friends in the law enforcement community what they knew about the problem. Boy was I surprised at what I learned. After that conversation, I was made aware of four common misconceptions one identity their used to steal our money.

Misconception # 1 There are More Male Identity Thieves Than Female All to often when we watch television or read the newspaper, we are presented with images of identity thieves portrayed as men. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, many of these criminals are young attractive women. Research has proven time and time again that both men and women tend to relax themselves around other women. These criminals use this to their advantage. Just remember, everyone is a potential thief. While you should not be nervous, you should be careful.

Myth # 2 You Can't Be a Victim If You Only Give Your Credit Card to Waiters When I was growing up, we had a saying that applies so well to our discussion. We used to say, "He's like a kid in a candy store". This would also be a great phrase to describe many identity thieves. Think about this, if you were looking to steal people's credit or checking information, where's the best place to gain access to this information without appearing to be suspicious? That's right; you'd go and get a job as a cashier or waiter at the local restaurant. Why? The answer is simply because people willingly give over their debit and credit cards without hesitation. You must stop this immediately. Begin to use cash when you eat out. Keep track of expenditures and reconcile your cards each week.

You might also consider setting a spending limit. An ideal example would be about $100. Now, you can alert yourself every time an expense occurs over that amount. Think about this for a moment. The average cashier will handle literally hundreds of personal transactions in a few weeks time. Do you think it might be possible that of those, some customers bought more than they were expecting to buy?

Misconception # 3 Tossing Out That Junk Mail Unopened Whether you have good credit, great credit or terrible credit, it really does not matter. You will receive in a given month between 12 and 50 plus new offers each month to open new banking, credit accounts. The problem with this is that most of us are lazy. We fall in one of two categories. The first is a person who does not own a personal shredding machine and simply tosses the multiple credit offers in the trash or simply tears them in half and then tosses them. The second is the person who does own a personal shredder but has become too lazy to shred each and every piece of documentation sent to them.

Listen, all a thief has to do is get a hold of one piece of information from your trash can and you quickly become a victim. Don't believe me? Let me ask you this, what are doing at 3a.m.? Really, well guess what our trustworthy identity thief is doing? She is in your trash can randomly pulling a bag out of your can for shifting and sorting later.

Quick Tip: If you still feel uneasy about just shredding your personal mail, you can also submerge the documents in water to ensure that it becomes too much of a hassle for even the best identity thieves. The goal is to make it very hard for you or your family to become victims.

Misconception # 4 Having Mail Delivered to Your Home Are you starting to see the point now? At all costs, you must maintain your privacy. Why is this important? Well, if your mail sits unattended, it won't be long before someone attends to it. You get the idea.

Another way to do this is by opening a post office box. For many this is a necessity because they do not arrive home in time to collect the mail as soon as it is delivered. If you give a crook access to your mail, it becomes a simple process of updating your address to theirs. Once done, you've lost a lot more than you think.

Stop trying to make it without help! Listen, very few people can successfully protect themselves and their families without help. The major problem is that you have been trying to do it alone and it is just NOT effective. How much difference would it make in your life if you had a proven guide who has been in the trenches? There are many companies that provide affordable identity theft solutions for people like you and me.

These services do work. Of course some work better than others but there are a few things you can look for when evaluating a potential service. First, do they have the endorsement from law enforcement officials or agencies? Lastly, is this an established company or some fly by night operation?

About the Author

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