4 Key Ways to Prevent Identity Theft Fraud

You've heard all about it, how identity theft fraud is the fastest growing crime around, experiencing a 25% increase from 2007 to 2008. It is positively rampant, and often goes hand in glove with methamphetamine addiction. But what's the average consumer to do? Excellent question and legitimate reason for concern. To help you protect yourself better and reduce your chances of being victimized, consider these strategies designed to help prevent identity theft fraud:

1. Protect your Social Security number - Keep your Social Security card in a safe location. Never carry it your in your pocket book or wallet. Only provide it when absolutely necessary and see if there is another form of identification you can provide to customer service like a password or security question. If you live in a state that allows your Social Security number to be your drivers license number, ask for an alternative. Check all your documents from school records to health insurance and treat them like they were valuables. Shred them before discarding them.
2. Take care with your trash - As outlined elsewhere on this site, your trash isn't you own once you've put it out for pickup or dropped it off in a dumpster. It becomes, effectively, public property. Anyone can go through it. If you think no one would sift through your spaghetti-sauce stained garbage in search of personal papers, then you don't know how desperate identity thieves are. And you don't understand how much they have to gain from a few account numbers. So, don't throw away credit card receipts, tax returns, IRS letters, account statements, or anything containing personal information until you've shredded it.
3. Make passwords hard to crack - Never use your name as a password, nor those of your spouse or child. Never use an easy sequence of numbers like 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. And, never, ever use your Social Security number. Again, identity thieves are doing this kind of thing for a living. They have a knack for understanding how people work. You can use a combination of letters or words that mean something to you so you'll remember them, but do not make it easy to deduce. And lastly, never tell anyone nor make the mistake of writing them on a slip of paper tucked into the wallet that they just might steal!
4. Keep your personal information "safe" - Here again, treat statements and documents as if they were valuables - because to identity thieves they are the golden eggs. Consider purchasing a fire-proof a safe for your home. And if you have a lot to lose, you might even go to the trouble of keeping them in a safe deposit box at the bank. And don't forget about the dentist's office, or your workplace. For example, does Human Resources protect your file? Can anyone get their hands on your Social Security number. Go to the trouble of asking what precautions they take to keep your information and to prevent identity theft fraud.

If you implement these suggestions, you will significantly reduce your risk of falling victim to identity theft fraud. However, there are no guarantees with these precautions. And once you or a third party slips up, that may be all it takes for you to find yourself facing fraudulent charges and a swath of bad credit trailing behind you with your name on it. So, in addition to these methods of protecting yourself, you might consider enrolling in an identity theft protection service that has been specifically designed not just to prevent identity theft fraud, but to set things right if the identity thieves succeed in stealing your identity.