The Kestner Team

Simple Steps to Avoid Identity Theft

From BeattheRecession.com

Yesterday I received a call from someone representing a leasing company who claimed he was referred by D&B and that he had a very large business line of credit for us. He started rattling off personal and detailed questions, including asking me for my social security number – and before answering them, I said, "With all the fraud out there, can I please have your information first?" Before I could say "Hello" again, the line went dead, as his scam was uncovered.

Many readers have written to us in a panic, concerned that they may be the victims of identity theft. At least one of these readers clearly was a victim of such theft - the other two may have had their identity stolen, but it hasn’t been used yet.

We know people who’ve been victims in the past. Unused cards were stolen a couple years ago as the data was apparently on a backup tape that was stolen from some organization and it was actually maxed out before the cardholders became aware of it. It took quite a bit of effort to get that all straightened out, including calls to all the credit bureaus. If they had been even a little bit more subtle, the cardholders probably would have never even known about it and their credit would have been destroyed.

If You Have Fraud Alert
There’s a lot of good advice out there on how to react to possible identity theft - call your bank, all of your credit card companies, and the three credit bureaus, for starters. This advice, though, is really only useful if you’re pretty sure your identity already has been stolen.

§ Equifax: 1-877-576-5734; www.equifax.com
§ Experian: 1-888-397-3742; www.experian.com/fraud
§ TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com

Reducing Identity Fraud
Here are some quick pointers to Reduce Identity Theft

1. Do not give out bank account information, credit card information, your Social Security number, your mother’s maiden name, or your drivers’ license info unless you contact the bank or financial institution first – on a phone number you found, not one that was given to you.

2. Never give out personal information to people calling you – even if you have a relationship with the organization. A REAL bank or paypal employee would never ask you for this information by phone or by email.

3. Never enter any information into an online form unless you know quite well who you’re connecting with. Don’t follow links in emails and enter information because it looks like PayPal or Amazon. Instead, go to those sites directly first by typing in the URL. Often scams will have the name is the URL, such as “orders.paypay.122343.com”. This is NOT the same as paypal.com.

4. Also, what you “see” on an email or website can be different than the actual link being “clicked”. So even if you see “Paypal.com”, in an email, the actual link clicked may not be paypal.com. You MUST TYPE in the LINK yourself.

5. Don’t trust the contact info they give you. Look up the organization and find the correct contact information online, then contact them.

6. Cancel unused credit cards except for your oldest one. There’s little reason to keep unused credit cards around unless it’s your oldest card (as length of credit matters in calculating your credit score), so don’t take that risk.

7. Shred or burn any bill statements you no longer want to keep. Often, bill statements contain enough information for at least the potential of identity theft, so keep them filed until you no longer need them, then burn them. Remember, though, that shredded bill statements make fantastic kindling for fires if you’re camping - almost anyone can get a fire started with that stuff.

8. Keep an eye on your credit reports. Get your free credit reports each year and make sure you know what everything is on that report. If there’s some stuff that you’re unsure about, track it down immediately.

9. Control your wallet – and make COPIES of what is there. Know where it is at all times and make sure it’s tough for pickpockets to easily grab it. ALSO – Every 6 months, make a photocopy of everything in your wallet. If it was stolen, would you even know everything that was missing? This has helped me immeasurably on several occasions – after my wallet was stolen in Spain, and a copy of my plane ticket (Pre E-Tickets) allowed me to get on a flight rather than wait 5 days for the next one.