Introduction
The 1990's spawned a new variety of crooks called identity thieves. Their stock in trade? Your everyday transactions, which usually reveal bits of your personal information: your bank and credit card account numbers; your income; your Social Security number (SSN); or your name, address, and phone numbers. An identity thief obtains some piece of your sensitive information and uses it without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft.
Identity theft is a serious crime. People whose identities have been stolen can spend time and money cleaning up the mess the thieves have made of their good name and credit record. They may lose out on job opportunities, and loans for education, housing, or cars. They may even get arrested for crimes they didn’t commit.
Can you prevent an identity theft? As with any crime, you cannot completely control whether you will become a victim. But according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, you can minimize your risk by managing your personal information cautiously.

How Identity Theft Occurs
Skilled identity thieves use a variety of ways to gain access to your personal information. For example, they may get information from businesses or other institutions by stealing it while they’re on the job; bribing an employee who has access to these records; hacking these records; and conning information out of employees.
Once identity thieves have your personal information, they may use it to commit fraud or theft.

How Can You Tell if You're a Victim of Identity Theft?
If an identity thief is opening new credit accounts in your name, these accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. You can find out by ordering a copy of your credit report from the three nationwide consumer reporting companies. If you have lost any personal information – or if it has been stolen – you may want to check all your reports more frequently for the first year.
Monitor the balances of your financial accounts. Look for unexplained charges or withdrawals. Other indications of identity theft can be:

failing to receive bills or other mail. This could mean an identity thief has submitted a change of address.

receiving credit cards for which you did not apply.

denial of credit for no apparent reason.

receiving calls from debt collectors or companies about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.

Getting Your Credit Report
FREE ANNUAL CREDIT REPORTS
An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the major nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.
Free reports have been phased in during a nine-month period, starting with states in the West and ending with states in the East. Beginning September 1, 2005, free reports will be accessible to all Americans, regardless of where they live.
To order your free annual report from one or all the national consumer reporting companies, visit: www.annualcreditreport.com; call toll-free: 1-877-322-8228; or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can print the form from ftc.gov/credit. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually; they provide free annual credit reports only through www.annualcreditreport.com, 1-877-322-8228, and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.
OTHER RIGHTS TO FREE REPORTS
Under federal law, you’re also entitled to a free report if a company takes adverse action against you, such as denying your application for credit, insurance or employment, and you request your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. The notice will give you the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company that supplied the information about you. You’re also entitled to one free report a year if you’re unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days; if you’re on welfare; or if your report is inaccurate because of fraud. Otherwise, a consumer reporting company may charge you up to $9.50 for additional copies of your report.
TO BUY A COPY OF YOUR REPORT, CONTACT:
Equifax: 1-800-685-1111; www.equifax.com
Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (1-888-397-3742); www.experian.com
TransUnion: 1-800-916-8800; www.transunion.com

Managing Your Personal Information
How can a responsible consumer minimize the risk of identity theft, as well as the potential for damage? When a situation involves your personal information, exercise caution and prudence.
DO IT NOW
Place passwords on your credit card, bank, and phone accounts. Avoid using easily available information like your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your SSN or your phone number, or a series of consecutive numbers. When you open new accounts, you may find that many businesses still have a line on their applications for your mother’s maiden name. Ask to use a password instead.
Secure personal information in your home, especially if you have roommates, employ outside help, or are having work done in your home.
Ask about information security procedures in your workplace or at businesses, doctors’ offices, or other institutions that collect your personally identifying information. Find out who has access to your personal information and verify thatit is handled securely. Ask about the disposal procedures for those records, as well. Find out if information will be shared with anyone else. If so, ask how your information can be kept confidential.
EVERYDAY DILIGENCE
Don’t give out personal information on the phone, through the mail, or on the Internet unless you’ve initiated the contact or are sure you know who you’re dealing with. Identity thieves are clever, and have posed as representatives of banks, Internet service providers (ISPs), and even government agencies to get people to reveal their SSN, mother’s maiden name, account numbers, and other identifying information. Before you share any personal information, confirm that you’re dealing with a legitimate organization. Check an organization’s website by typing its URL in the address line, rather than cutting and pasting it in. Many companies post scam alerts on their sites when their name has been used improperly. Or call customer service using the number listed on your account statement or in the telephone book.
Treat your mail and trash carefully. Deposit your outgoing mail in post office collection boxes or at your local post office, rather than in an unsecured mailbox. Promptly remove mail from your mailbox. If you’re planning to be away from home and can’t pick up your mail, call the U.S. Postal Service at 1-800-275-8777 to request a vacation hold. The Postal Service will hold your mail at your local post office until you can pick it up or are home to receive it.
To thwart a thief who may pick through your trash or recycling bins to capture your personal information, tear or shred your charge receipts, copies of credit applications, insurance forms, physician statements, checks and bank statements, expired credit or charge cards that you’re discarding, and credit offers you get in the mail. To opt out of receiving offers of credit in the mail that are based on your credit report, call: 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688). The nationwide consumer reporting companies use the same toll-free number to let you opt out of receiving credit offers based on their lists. Note: You will be asked to provide your SSN, which the consumer reporting companies need to match you with your file.
Don’t carry your SSN card in your wallet; store it in a secure place.
Give your SSN only when absolutely necessary, and ask to use other types of identifiers. If your state uses your SSN as your driver’s license number, ask to substitute another number. Do the same if your health insurance company uses your SSN as your policy number.
Carry only the identification information and the credit and debit cards that you’ll actually need when you go out. If your wallet is stolen – or if you lose it – report it immediately to the card issuers and the local police.
CONSIDER YOUR COMPUTER
Your computer can be a goldmine of personal information to an identity thief. Here are some ways to help you keep your computer – and the personal information it stores – safe.
Update your virus protection software regularly; install patches for your operating system and other software programs to protect against intrusions and infections that can lead to the compromise of your computer files or passwords. Ideally, you should set your virus protection software to update automatically. The Windows XP operating system also can be set to check for patches automatically and download them to your computer.
Do not open files sent to you by strangers, click on hyperlinks, or download programs from people or companies you don’t know. Be cautious about using file-sharing programs. Opening a file could expose your system to a computer virus or a program known as “spyware,” which could capture your passwords or any other information as you type it into your keyboard.
Use a firewall program, especially if you use a high speed Internet connection like cable, DSL or T-1 that leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. The firewall program allows you to stop uninvited access to your computer. Without it, hackers can take over your computer, access the personal information stored on it, or use it to commit other crimes.
If you need to provide your personal or financial information through an organization’s website, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for secure). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some fraudulent sites have forged security icons.
Try not to store financial information on your laptop unless absolutely necessary.
If you do, use what experts call a “strong” password – a combination of letters (upper and lower case), numbers, and symbols. A good way to create a strong password is to think of a memorable phrase and use the first letter of each word as your password, converting some letters into numbers. For example, “I love Felix; he’s a good cat,” would become 1LFHA6c. Don’t use an automatic log-in feature that saves your user name and password, and always log off when you’re finished. If your laptop is stolen, it makes it harder for a thief to access your personal information.

If Your Personal Information Has Been Lost or Stolen
If you’ve lost personal information or identification, or if it has been stolen from you, you can minimize the potential for identity theft if you act quickly.
Financial accounts: Close accounts, like credit card and bank accounts, immediately. When you open new accounts, place passwords on them. Avoid using your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your SSN or your phone number, or a series of consecutive numbers.
Social Security number: Call the toll-free fraud number of any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies and place an initial fraud alert on your credit reports (see page19). An alert can help stop someone from opening new credit accounts in your name.
Driver’s license/other government-issued identification: Contact the agency that issued the license or other identification document. Follow its procedures to cancel the document and to get a replacement. Ask the agency to flag your file so that no one else can get a license or any other identification document from them in your name.
Once you have taken these precautions, watch for signs that your information is being misused, and that your identity has been stolen.
If your information has been misused, file a report about the theft with the police, and file a complaint with the FTC, as well. If another crime was committed – for example, if your purse or wallet was stolen or your house or car was broken into – report it to the police immediately.
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