Cyber-Safety Basics: Prevent Identity Theft

Why should you take actions to prevent identity theft? Because victims of identity theft may:

Be arrested for crimes they didn't commit.
Lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars to thieves and/or to fees for cleaning up financial records.
Spend countless hours clearing personal records.
Be refused loans for housing or cars due to poor credit resulting from identity theft.

To help prevent identity theft:

Order a copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. Make sure it's accurate and includes only those activities you've authorized.
Don't send personal information via email or IM or online forms you access via a link in an email or IM. These are often part of "phishing" scams, a form of fraud that uses email messages that appear to be from a reputable business (often a financial institution) in an attempt to gain personal or account information.
Place hard-to-guess passwords on your credit card, bank, and phone accounts and keep them secret.
When shopping online, make sure the site is secure by looking for the padlock icon in the corner of the page that asks you to input your personal information.
Encrypt personal information or store it on portable media and lock it in a drawer.
Lock up your computer with a cable and set an account password to login.
Use a paper shredder when throwing out personal information.
Protect others' information as you do your own.
See Identity Theft Recovery Resources if you believe you have been the victim of identity theft.