Having your identity stolen can be an
enormous inconvenience to say the least. Personally, I have never experienced
it, but I know how it feels when your wallet goes missing. Having to remember
everything that was in your wallet, retracing steps, calling all your credit
cards, getting your license reissued, it’s a lot of work. It puts your life on
hold. Marry that with the fact that someone intentionally took your identity
for monetary gain. Now your conversation turns from I lost something to I
didn’t make those purchases. Someone who said they were me did that.
While identity theft is a very real
possibility, in fact the 2011 report on
identity theft by Javelin Strategy & Research estimated that in 2010
approximately 8.1 million U.S. adults were victims of identity theft, costing
consumers a whopping total of $631 billion nationwide. There are steps you can
take to minimize your risk.
- Buy a shredder – shred all documents with personal information on them.
- Never give your information over the phone to someone who contacts you. Get a number and call them back. If you are still unsure, don’t give it out.
- Don’t carry your social security number in your wallet. Keep it in a safe place.
- Review your credit card statements to make sure all charges are yours. Sometimes charges are small and can be missed.
- Change online passwords regularly, make them strong with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. “Password” is not a good password.
- When buying online use secure sites only for purchases, the address should begin with “https” not just “http.”
- Keep limits low on credit cards to minimize the damages.
If
you have experienced identity theft:
- Contact credit card companies, bank, and vendors.
- File police report
- Maintain a log of all conversations.
- Contact insurance company to see if you have identity theft coverage as part of your homeowners. (Ask ahead of time to understand your benefits.)
- Hire a daily money manager or financial professional to work with you to restore identity.
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