- Check your credit report now! Also, every three to six months thereafter. Look for inaccuracies and report them.
- Bank and pay bills online at properly secured websites. Avoid using the mail for sending or receiving financial documents—including checks and credit card applications.
- Have your name removed from junk mail lists.
- Regularly check your bank accounts and credit card statements on-line to verify charges.
- BUY A SHREDDER! Shred credit card receipts, Junk mail and other documents that contain private information.
- Never give personal information to telemarketers.
- Always be careful what personal information you give out, and to whom.
- Don't carry your passport and social security card on your person unless you absolutely must.
- Limit where you put your social security number—and never put your SSN on checks. Try to avoid putting your address and telephone number on checks as well.
- Use passwords other than your “mother's maiden name” or “the town you grew up in” for your financial account verification. Your birth certificate is a public document that lists this information, and is already available to potential identity thieves.
