auto insurance agents near me

Get organized and protect yourself from identity theft The Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year, making identity theft one of the fasting growing crimes in this country. Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, credit card numbers or other financial account information, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. Identity theft takes many different forms and can ruin your good name and destroy your credit. Thieves may steal your credit card information and use it to charge purchases to your existing accounts. They may open new credit card accounts in your name and run up debt. They may open a new phone or wireless account in your name or run up charges on your existing account. They may use your information to get utility services like electricity or cable TV. They may create counterfeit checks using your name or account number. They may open a bank account using your name and write bad checks. They may clone your ATM or debit card and drain your accounts. They may take out a loan in your name. They may get a driver's license or official ID card with their picture and your name on it. They may use your name and Social Security number to get government benefits or a job. They may file a fraudulent tax return using your information. They may rent housing or get medical services using your name. If arrested, they may give your personal information to police. Often identity thieves are long gone before you ever know what hit you. You may not find out about the theft until you review your credit report or credit card statement and see charges you didn't make. Or until bill collection agencies contact you for overdue debts you never incurred. Or until you apply for a mortgage or car loan and discover that there are problems with your credit history. Or you may get something in the mail about an apartment you never rented, a house you never bought or a job you never held. The damage done can take months or years to repair, to say nothing of the effort and money it costs. In many cases the perpetrator goes uncaught and unpunished. As a result, companies that have been defrauded by identity thieves often write it off as bad debt and increase their fees and interest rates to cover their losses. Indirectly, that means that we are all victims of identity theft. There are no guarantees, but the smarter and more vigilant you are, the less likely you are to have your identity or personal information stolen and misused. Since the best defense is a good offense, here are some ideas on how to protect your identity: 1. CHECK YOUR CREDIT REPORTS ANNUALLY. I can't urge you strongly enough to check your credit reports every year. By law, you are entitled to one free credit report a year from each of the three major credit-reporting agencies [www.equifax.com or (800) 685-1111; www.experian.com or (888) 397-3742; www.transunion.com or (877) 322-8228]. Request a report today from one of the three agencies, in four months request a report from one of the two remaining agencies and four months from the date of the second report, request a report from the third agency. Spreading out your requests for these reports is a good way to monitor your credit throughout the year. Write the dates on your yearly calendar or planner so that you don't forget when to request reports. Transfer the dates whenever you get a new calendar or planner. Look at each report carefully and take the time to verify that every item listed there belongs to you and the information reported is accurate. Report any problems immediately. 2. PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. Buy a good cross-cut shredder and shred all documents that contain any financial information (including credit, debit and ATM card receipts), account number, a signature, social security number or medical or legal information. All those credit card applications you receive in the mail and throw away are as good as gold to thieves who can use them to open an account in your name. Be sure to shred them. You can remove all personal identifying information by hand, if you prefer, but be sure you do a thorough job of it. Some companies put your account number on every page - front and back - of documents they send you. Be sure to remove them all. 3. KNOW WHEN YOUR BILLS ARRIVE. Keep track of when you receive your bills and if a bill is late, call and check on its status. A late or missing bill might mean that it's been intercepted, the billing address changed and fraudulent charges run up on it. Carefully check each of your bills to make sure that all the charges are yours. Reconcile your credit card and checking account statements in a timely fashion and dispute any purchases you did not make. 4. PPOTECT YOUR PASSWORDS, PINS AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. Memorize your passwords or personal identification numbers (PINs). Do not write them down and carry them with you. Protect them from being seen by strangers, especially at ATM machines. Do not store them on your computer's hard drive, especially if you carry a laptop. If you must write them down, be sure to store them elsewhere. Make your passwords hard for someone else to figure out. Do NOT use the obvious - your birth date, Social Security number, telephone number, etc. Whenever possible use a mix of upper and lower case letters and numbers or symbols. Change your passwords regularly. Never provide your Social Security number to anyone online or on the phone if you did not initiate the contact. Don't carry your Social Security card with you unless absolutely necessary. Ask companies who request your Social Security number for identification purposes if they have alternative options you can use. 5. COPY THE CONTENTS OF YOUR WALLET. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine and copy the front and back of your driver's license, ATM cards, credit cards, etc. Be sure you capture all the account numbers, expiration dates and customer service and fraud department phone numbers. That way, you will be able to call all of the issuers with the relevant information to inform them about missing or stolen cards. Keep the photocopy in a secure place. If your wallet ever gets stolen, file a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where the theft occurred. This proves to credit providers that you were diligent and is a first step toward an investigation if there ever is one. Call the three credit reporting agencies immediately to place a "Fraud Alert" on your name and Social Security number. Placing a fraud alert entitles you to free copies of your credit reports. Close any accounts that have been tampered with or established without authorization. The alert also tells creditors to follow certain procedures before they open new accounts in your name or make changes to your existing accounts. 6. LESS IS BEST. Limit the number of credit cards you have and cancel inactive accounts. Only carry the absolute minimum number of credit cards and identification cards (i.e. Social Security, birth certificate, passport) with you that you need at any given time. Don't carry identification cards with you at all unless you really have to. This practice minimizes the amount of information a thief can steal from you. Another good reason not to carry several credit cards, are Good Samaritan scams. This is where a supposedly Good Samaritan returns your missing wallet after one of the credit cards has been removed. You may carry so many that you don't realize it's missing until it's too late. 7. BE SAFE NOT SORRY. Everyone may not be as honest as you'd like to hope they are. Better to be safe than sorry. Keep your personal information in a secure place at home, especially if you have roommates, employ outside help or are having work done in your home. Keep your wallet or purse in a secure place at work. Never leave your purse or wallet unattended in a restaurant, church or temple, health fitness club, shopping cart, etc. Never leave your purse or wallet in open view in a car, even when it is locked. 8. BE TECHNOLOGY SAVVY. Buy a firewall program, virus protection and spyware detection for your computer so that hackers can't break into your system and steal information while you're surfing the Internet. Be sure you keep them updated. If you make online purchases, always check the website's privacy policies to make sure that it is a secure site. Be suspicious of any official-looking email you receive asking you to verify or update your information. These are scams to get you to divulge your personal information. Anyone who already has your information will not ask you to verify it. Ditto for phone calls you get from any kind of business or company asking you to divulge personal information. Check the company out first and satisfy yourself that they are legitimate. Make sure your computer is configured to automatically download the latest patches and fixes for your operating system. Install them promptly. Did you know that the radio frequencies of cell, mobile, wireless or cordless phones can be easily intercepted, overheard and hacked? If you routinely give out personal information over them, you may want to reconsider this practice. If you carry a laptop computer and use it in public places, make sure that you use a password consisting of a combination or upper and lower case letters and numbers or symbols. Make it hard for anybody with prying eyes to figure it out. Don't use automatic login and be sure to log off when you're finished. Try not to store financial information on it unless you really need to. If you're disposing of your personal computer, simply removing your personal information isn't enough. That information is still stored on the hard drive and you need to use a wipe utility program - the computer equivalent of a shredder - to render the files unrecoverable. 9. PROTECT YOUR CREDIT CARDS AND CHECKING ACCOUNTS. The next time you order checks have only your initials and last name put on them instead of your first and last name. If your checkbook is lost or stolen, no one will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks. When you are writing checks to pay your credit card accounts, do not put the complete account number on the "For" or "Memo" line. Instead, just put the last four digits. The credit card company knows the rest of the number and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it. If you close a checking account, shred or otherwise destroy all the checks associated with that account. Courtesy checks that your bank or credit card company sends you should be destroyed or kept in a secure place. 10. USE A CREDIT MONITORING SERVICE. For complete peace of mind, consider subscribing to a credit monitoring service. They will keep you posted regularly about your credit status and report any suspicious activity.
Previous     Next
See also
mapquest driving directions nh
quotes tumblr swag
computershare metlife address
education connection girl name
expedia coupon code car rental
ebay buying auction auction listings
auto insurance agents near me
car donation mn
gmail.com shared calendar
msnbc live stream rachel maddow
googlemaps.com birds eye view
sprintf arduino
myspace wiki fr
kelley blue book value used cars free
old navy credit card customer service
at&t cingular wireless account access
love calculator minions
computershare employee uk
chicago hotels downtown cheap
insurance premium audit
travelers insurance login
travelocity flights airlines airfare cheap airfare
domain names register australia
sprinter hacked
bank of america france contact
expedia car rental reviews
jobsdb batam
binge eating disorder treatment naturally
skyrocket toys los angeles
laser pointer for cats