Do it Yourself Identity Theft Protection
 |
Friday, September 18th, 2009 (No comments yet) |
It's amazing what some companies will charge to perform a few simple anti-ID-theft tricks that you can easily do yourself. Here's a list of things that you could be charged for, but can do yourself:
- Fraud Alerts – IF you decide for some reason that you want one of these (which you really don't need after getting a credit freeze), it's easy to do. Just visit any of the fraud alert pages for the three major CRCs (here's the link for Equifax). Once you follow the process for placing a fraud alert, the other two will be notified automatically.
-
Web Information Monitoring – One of the simplest ways to keep a tack on what is going on with your personal information on the Internet is to use the Google Alerts tool. First, go to google.com/alerts and enter some data that you want to watch online (name, phone number, etc) in the "search terms" box. Leave the next two options alone and enter an e-mail address where you want to recieve results. That's it!
Once finished, Google will scan the web like normal, but any time it finds something new that matches your search, it will e-mail you links to where it found it. In other words, you use Google to scan the web for you!
- Wallet Loss Preparation – Instead of scrambling to deal with lost or stolen credit cards and id after the fact, put together a list of credit card phone numbers that you can call immediately. Keep the amount and types of data in your wallet to a minimum. Especially when traveling, make sure to only bring what you need. Also, keeping your wallet in a front pocket helps prevent pick-pocketing. For more tips, check out this guide.
- Reduce Pre-Approved Credit Offers – When these show up, they can be used by others to get credit in your name (like this guy showed). Simply go to http://www.optoutprescreen.com and follow the instructions. Certainly nothing you should have to pay for.
- Request Your Free Yearly Credit Reports – If you want to keep tabs on your credit files, just use AnnualCreditReport.com (the only legitimate site to get your free reports as mandated by law). If you order one every 4 months from one of the three CRCs, you can keep a pretty constant view of what your credit is doing.
- Practice good Data Defense – The more you limit your information, the easier prevent ID theft and worse.
That's a good start. If you have more suggestions, leave them in the comments.
