Identity theft is a rapidly growing criminal “business”. The Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) reported that, in the year 2008 alone, 9.9 million adult Americans were the victims of identity thieves. The continuing rise of the crime of identity theft (often referred to as “identity fraud”) means that each and every one of us should take steps to protect his/herself from the identity fraudsters. The following tips for protection against identity theft are simple to implement:

Don’t carry more credit cards than you need.
Most people nowadays have more than one credit card, and they tend to carry all their cards in a handy card case. Get into the habit of only carrying the card or cards you are likely to use on any given occasion.

Don’t carry unnecessary documents.
Any document bearing details such as your name and address, an account number or other personal information is a valuable commodity to anyone involved in identity theft. Don’t leave sensitive documents in your pockets, purses or luggage.

Shred or burn old personal documents
Make sure that all private documents are shredded or burnt when you want to dispose of them. Bank statements are an example of documents that should be shredded for disposal. You should also look out for any document bearing your Social Security Number; the document might be worthless, but the number should be safeguarded against identity fraud.

Remember your utility bills
You should ensure that old utility bills are shredded, these are a trusted source of proof of identity, so don’t let them fall into the wrong hands. Tearing documents up is not sufficient: identity theft is so lucrative, the thieves involved will think their time well-spent in piecing together a ripped up bank statement.

Guard your personal information in phone calls
Never give out information such as bank account numbers or credit card numbers to anyone who calls you on the phone. Even if somebody rings you claiming to be from a particular company that you have dealt with and asks you to confirm your details, don’t trust them; identity theft often begins with just an innocent-seeming phone call. You should terminate the call and ring the company on a number displayed on their company stationary.

Take care with online passwords
Do not use the same password for all online transactions. If a person involved in an identity theft racket gets hold of your password for an online store, they will immediately try using the same password to get control of your bank account, credit card account etc. The identity thief would not even have to work hard to get into your other online accounts: computer software does all the work and can give results in a matter of seconds.

The last of the tips for protection against identity theft is probably the most important:

Use a fraud prevention monitoring service.

Don’t leave protection of your identity to luck, employ the services of a dedicated
fraud protection monitoring service. Identity thieves operate on a professional level; if you want to preserve the integrity of your identity, you need a professional working for you.