Identity theft is considered to be one of the fastest growing crimes. Here are some things you should do to help protect yourself.
- Check your mail often
- Don’t just throw it out, it could contain personal information
- Shred, shred, shred (bills, receipts, statements…)
- Protect your social insurance number
- Limit what you carry in your wallet and keep a list
- Log off / lock your computer
- Lock your home at all times
- Keep sensitive documents safe
- Double check yur bills and statements
- Check credit report regularly
- Limit number of credit cards
- Use a credit card with a small limit for online purchases
What else do you suggest?
I really learned my lesson about online purchasing. I used my bank debit card for online purchases and someone really messed up my account! I got the problem resolved and now i only use pre paid debit cards for online purchases.
I use my debit card, but never give out my number, I use something known as ”MercadoPago” for my online purchases. I used a credit card when I was younger, I got a weird e-mail some days later, turns out someone in Australia was trying to pay their internet bill with it. Learn my lesson: NO CREDIT CARDS FOR ME.
Great tips. I myself can be lazy it it comes to some of these but I try to do my best. I have had my identity stolen before and recovering everything took a lot of time and effort. It was a bad situation and I do not want it to happen again!
There are some things that are in this list and I don’t do 🙁 Like for example shredding important documents, I try to tear them to little pieces, but that’s not always enough, I think. I’m also a bit worried because I recently opened a new bank account, I got all my personal info in a bank statement this month… now I’m thinking, what happened to the statement from the last month?! I cancelled this ”service” already.
I cancelled my credit card after just 3 days, I used it to order something online from a site deemed to be a safe one. 2 days later I got an e-mail, letting me know a payment for a service had been denied (I decided to cancel my card the second day after getting it because the company charged me twice). So yeah, if I hadn’t cancelled that credit card those people could have charged I don’t know how many things on my card! Plus, the fact someone got my details after using it once made me really suspicious…
Ever since this I’m really careful with everything regarding identity theft. I know my experience is not exactly about identity theft, but this experience made me realize how bad things can get if someone commits fraud using my name.