Identity Protection Basics - What’s in Your Wallet?

September 14th, 2009 by Certified Identity Theft Advisor

What's in Your Purse?

There are many instances of identity theft that are beyond our control. But many cases of identity theft are still happening in old fashioned ways. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had his identity stolen because his wife’s purse was snatched from a chair at a restaurant. We all know to protect our purses and wallets, but many times we simply don’t think about, or forget to implement best practices in public. Or it simply is just plain inconvenient.

Stolen identity is much worse than protection inconveniences

Remember - identity thieves come with many different profiles. But first and foremost - identity theft is a crime of opportunity. It is up to us to continually lessen the opportunity.

Getting Back to Basic Identity Protection Steps

What’s in Your Wallet

Never carry your social security or Medicare card with you unless you are going for a job interview or Doctor’s appointment. When you arrive back home from said event, remove the cards immediately and put in a safe place.
Make copies all all important cards you carry, both front and back, and store in a safe place, but readily available if you need to make phone calls.
Remove all but one credit or debit card for shopping purposes, and leave your checkbook home.
Best practice -consider doing all your shopping with one credit card that you pay off at the close of the billing cycle. Why? If your wallet or card goes missing, you are working with the creditor’s money, instead of your checking account being drained below a zero balance. It buys you some time and doesn’t leave you personally broke.
Next best practice - if you don’t have a credit card you can use, use your debit card as a credit card, where you sign your name instead of entering a PIN number. That avoids issues with shoulder surfing, telephoto lenses, phone cameras, etc.
Never ever write checks to strangers who come to your door and volunteer to do yard work or household projects. Why? All your personal information, except for social security number and birth date are contained on the check, including bank routing number and account number.
When you must pay bills with checks, do not put bill account numbers in the memo area.
Best practice when you need cash - go into your bank and get it. With the advent of skimmers and tiny cameras hiding on ATM machines, just avoid using ATM’s. Identity thieves are so brazen with this practice, sabotaged bank ATM’s have been discovered, operating at peak business hours, while the bank doors are open.
Next best practice if your bank is not open - use your debit card at a store that allows cash back. This is the only time you will have to use your PIN number - remember to shield it.
Take the time to put your card back in it’s proper location right at the counter, or checkout stand before you leave.
Respect and respond to your “gut” feeling. If a transaction does not feel right, just end the transaction. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Each week we will have more tips to help us protect what is within our ability to protect, so do subscribe and stay informed.

Reminder

Taking appropriate personal action to protect our information is no guarantee that we will avoid identity theft. Our personal information is already “out there” in thousands of databases. We are only lessening the “opportunity” in the areas we can control.

Best practice - don’t risk the hassle of trying to restore your identity on your own. Create a safety net. Choose a full identity restoration plan that best meets your needs. What that will mean for you - a qualified agency will do the investigative work for you, and save you hours of time and frustration. Don’t be talked into anything less than a full identity restoration plan.