Avoid identity theft is not about preventing identity theft. There is NO stopping identity theft. The key to reducing the risk is considered Darwinian by most and silly by others. Like it or not, you have a choice: be the hunter or be the hunted.
A few days ago, I received another “chain email.”
This one supposedly comes from an attorney who wants to offer you free advice about avoiding identity theft.
Still, I HATE chain emails as you will understand below.
Even worse, I HATE inaccurate, incomplete information passed off as good advice.
Click Read More below now for the 7 tips that supposedly come from an attorney helping you to avoid identity theft. Unfortunately, this “attorney” only shares a part of the real story. Fortunately for you, I will offer the “rest of the story.” Click now and then leave a comment, question or experience below.
YOU CANNOT STOP IDENTITY THEFT
No, you can’t protect yourself 100% from identity theft.
Take the following precautions to make it more difficult for a thief to target you.
Before I jump in to these 7 tips, here’s a bonus warning: STOP forwarding those educational, cute, funny, inspiring and even devotional emails to your Address Book. YOU are risking your friends’, family members’ & co-workers’ safety.
This is not the place for me to explain why you should not forward unsolicited “funny” emails. Here’s what I will say, scammers and ID Thieves often create many of these emails in order to “harvest” email addresses…straight from your Address Book.
From there, it gets worse….
Minimize ID Theft 7
I have been a REAL ID theft victim TWO TIMES…one light and one really bad. I don’t just read about well-intentioned tips in some book or website and think they sound good. I have real-world experience. Daily, I hear from people who are waking up to the horror I experienced years ago.
Only difference, some of these people have gotten hammered much worse than I did…and none of us saw it coming.
7-PLUS ID Theft Prevention Strategies To Heed Now…or else!
1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put ‘PHOTO ID REQUIRED.’
Mike’s suggestion: For most credit cards lost or stolen, the card holder (you) are not responsible for charges incurred if your card is lost or stolen, PROVIDED you contact your card issuer within “x” number of days of receiving your statement and discovering the charges.
2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the ‘For’ line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it.
Mike’s suggestion: If you insist on writing checks instead of paying electronically (it’s FREE with your bank), mail checks from SECURE post drop. Do NOT put mail in your box in front of your house with the raised red flag. Again, a card holder is not responsible for credit card charges made on a lost or stolen credit card.
3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
Mike’s suggestion: Do NOT put ANY phone number on a check. Do NOT put anything on your checks except for your NAME. A check printing company might insist you add something else, but decline their offer. Name only if you insist on using checks at all. More importantly, do NOT carry your checkbook in your purse or on you (or in your car). Do not keep the ledger with the checks. Keep them separate. Not long ago, a friend told me about an ID Theft experience where a thief stole checks from the [back] of her checkbook. She never knew until her account was overdrawn.
4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.. Keep the photocopy in a safe place.
We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a Name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.
Mike’s suggestion: Yes, photocopy the contents of your wallet (men and women). However, carry only the bare minimum on your person such as your driver’s license, one credit card…perhaps your car/health insurance card(s). Absolutely (and under no circumstances) do NOT carry your social security card.
5. Contact your credit card issuers immediately. The key is having the toll free numbers of your card issuers available.
Keep those phone numbers where you can find them.
Mike’s suggestion: Yep, the key is to cancel those cards as quickly as possible. On the back of each credit card is the 800 number. Please don’t carry or use debit cards. Regardless of what you hear, most debit cards are not safe. Your money can drained from your account(s) with no recourse. Recently, a local TV news anchor proved just how unsafe debit cards are, despite what his (and your) bank assured him. Thieves might not need a PIN. Thieves might not need a photo ID to burn your account. I do NOT use or recommend a debit (or cash) account.
6. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
Mike’s suggestion: You file a police report for mitigation, not for investigation. I don’t know of a police department in the country with resources to investigate individual credit card fraud.
7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number.
Mike’s suggestion: Yes, definitely file a police report. Definitely contact one credit reporting agency such as Equifax, Transunion or Experian and that one is legally bound to contact the other two re: fraud report. That’s not all: you must download a Fraud Affidavit from the FTC website. complete it. You’ll need all this to prove your innocence.
The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.
By the time the attorney claims he was advised to do this, two weeks had passed and nearly (but not) all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Mike’s suggestion: In this person’s case, the damage is minimal. However, this person now is forced to invest time for which he/she will not be compensated. Canceling cards, completing paperwork, making phone calls, facing debt collectors who think YOU are a deadbeat liar…on and on. YOU will have to do this work. Just think what happens when you have you bank account cleaned out. Or you suffer serious fraud and/or ID Theft. You LOSE money AND you suffer frustration beyond belief.
Now, here are the numbers you need to contact the BIG 3 if thieves steal from you:
1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 1-800-525-6285
2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742 1-888-397-3742
3.) Transunion : 1-800-680 7289 1-800-680 7289
4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line):
1-800-269-0271 1-800-269-0271
Don’t think for a moment you and I will stop identity thieves. This is their full-time job. They THINK and ACT this way. When they go to bed at night or get up in the morning, you are NOT thinking about how YOU can destroy people’s lives and steal from them.
No, you’re not but THEY are. This is what YOU and I must acknowledge. This is reality.
Have you been hit with ID Theft? What happened? What did you do about it? How bad did you get hit? What (if anything) do you do differently now? Scroll down now to leave a comment or ask a question. Each year, I update my ebook on reducing the risk of ID Theft and what to do if you or someone you care about gets “hit.”
Avoid Identity Theft following simple RULES to minimize the risk. Don’t think you are safe though. Regardless, you and I are potential victims. What you are about to hear might surprise (perhaps shock) you. My hope (mission) is to try to protect my identity more than the guy next to me - so that HE/SHE is an easier target. Sounds cruel, doesn’t it? I can’t apologize for that, because this is exactly what you too must do to minimize the threat.
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