Stay Safe In 2011 From Identity Theft

Unemployment is on the rise, there still economic uncertainty, and technology is invading our lives at an ever increasing rate, these all lead up to a potentially bad year for identity theft. Its all not bad news, and there are several simple steps you can take to protect yourself

First thing is to destroy financial data, receipts, bank statements, anything with account numbers and personal information. The quickest way is to use a shredder and shred anything you do not need to keep.If you want to give potential thieves a little extra surprise and have indoor cats, just toss the shredded paper in with your discarded kitty litter and all but the most desperate of thieves will leave it alone!

Second be cautious when you are using an ATM machine, gas pump, or anything you enter in your credit or debit card. ID thieves are getting more and more creative and techno savvy. A new trend that is emerging is the crooks will add a new card swipe and keypad to the existing machine. This device will then capture and store your data. To protect yourself just take a second look at the machine before you insert your card and your personal information. If it looks like it has been messed with, or just looks off, it's best to move on to another machine.

The third step is to protect your online identity. Social network sites are often targeted to fish for your personal information. To protect yourself do not use the same login and password for these sites. It is also good practice to get in the habit of changing your password often; you should change it at least once per month. Your password should contain both letters and numerals. Never use the same login for multiple sites. Do this will protect if you if one of your accounts gets hacked, they will then not have access to all your other accounts.

These steps above will help you to better protect yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft, but they will not be able to tell you if you have already become a victim. Most people do not know there identity was stolen until months after the fact.

The single best way to protect yourself from identity theft is with a credit report monitoring program. These will watch your credit reports (24/7|constantly|day and night} and if there is any activity on your report you will be notified within 24 hours. Once you receive an alert that there has been a change to your credit report, log in and take a look. Was this something that you did, or is it a fraudulent activity? If it was something you are aware of there is no other steps to take. If this is something you are not aware of you can immediately lock your credit, and then contact the company that made the inquiry on your credit report and notify them it is not to not approve it!

It really is unfortunate we live in a time where identity theft is running so rampant, but with a few simple steps you can keep yourself safe and protected.

Ken is one of the owners of Best Credit Reports.com a site devoted to educating and helping consumers on all topics credit.