HOW TO PREVENT IDENTITY THEFT

These are some steps you can encourage your clients to take to ward off ID theft.

• Opt Out of receiving Pre-Approved Credit Card Offers in the mail. Here's the phone number (888)5-OPT OUT, (888)567-8688.
• Check credit reports regularly to make sure the information that is being reported is accurate.
• Get a cross-cut paper shredder and shred every document a person could use to steal an identity, including credit card solicitations, bank solicitations, bank statements, etc.
• NEVER give out credit card numbers, Social Security Number or other personal information to someone over the phone or in an e-mail requesting that type of information.   If someone calls or emails a consumer asking to verify information, the consumer should hang up the phone and call their creditor back at the telephone number on their statement to verify the request.
• Check bank statements every month and make sure they are correct.
• Sign up for a credit watch program that will sends an alert whenever there is activity on the credit report.  CRC refers our clients to www.privacyguard.com for these services.
• Tell them to make a copy of everything in their wallet and keep it somewhere safe so that they have immediate access to telephone numbers should they become a victim.
• Only process online credit card transactions if the site has a secured icon on it which is usually a lock, or if the URL address changes from HTTP to HTTPS. The S is for secured.
• Find out if your state has instituted Security Freeze law to protect people who consider themselves at risk for any reason. (This includes vulnerability for those filing for divorce!)