Not Made Of Money

Have you ever been the victim of identity theft? Aside from being a scary experience (imagine for a moment that someone is out there racking up debts in your name), clearing up the after-effects of identity theft is decidedly annoying. Identity theft victims spend a great deal of time and energy trying to repair the damage done to their accounts and credit ratings by identity thieves.

The easiest way to deal with identity theft is simply to avoid it. If you can protect yourself from identity theft before it starts, you can keep out of the sticky situations that come from having your identity compromised. Everyone can start following these easy tips right away.

Destroy trash with personal information on it. Throwing out your trash doesn’t always mean that its contents are gone forever. Anyone who has access to your trash could find valuable information like account numbers, addresses, and even social security numbers. You can eliminate this risk, though, by simply passing all of your trash through a shredder before you toss it into the wastebasket.

Be careful with your mail. I can’t count how many times I used to mail payments from the home mailbox. My kids even used to take turns lifting the little red flag to signal that there was something in the box waiting to be picked up. Now, however, I realize what a bad idea that whole process was. Lying in that box was one of my checks and private account information. Anyone could have opened our box and taken that stuff out. Yikes! Always drop your mail directly into a post office box to ensure that your mail doesn’t come into contact with any unauthorized people.

Protect your social security number. Because social security numbers are linked to so much of your information, thieves love getting their hands on these precious gems. Don’t carry your social security card in your wallet and be very picky about who you give that number to. I never give my full number to anyone over the phone, either.

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