What Steps you can take to Prevent Identity Theft?

Identity theft protection services such as Identity Guard, LifeLock and TrustedID all have a number of effective measures against identity theft, but there are also many ways in which you can help to safeguard your own personal information against identity thieves.

Home Security
Your home will contain a lot of important personal information from banks statements and plastic cards through to key identity documents such as passports and birth certificates.  Therefore it is very important that you protect any important documents as you would any other valuables, and keep them in a safe, secure place when not in use.  Don’t leave your key documents such as your passport lying around and instead keep them locked away in a safety deposit box.  Check around your home and make sure you have adequate protection in place from opportunistic thieves, and make sure all of the doors and windows are locked at night or if you are away from the house.

Household Rubbish
One of the most common methods thieves have for accessing your personal information is to go through your rubbish and steal any documents you have thrown away such as utility bills, bank statements and old payslips.  Therefore it is very important that your shred any pieces of paper that contain your personal details before you dispose of them, and keep your rubbish in a secure place (such as your backyard) so that it cannot be tampered with before collection day.

Confidentiality
You should be treating all of your personal information such as your Social Security Number, bank account details and credit card numbers as confidential, and only ever giving out these details if you are absolute sure that the request is genuine.  Never give out personal details on the phone to callers you cannot identify, and remember your bank would never ask you for your sensitive account details either by phone or email, so any requests such as this are nearly always scams and you should not reply.