Protect Your Personal Information
Posted on 08/25/2009 by Daniela Baumgarthuber
Identity theft is one of the most common crimes currently being committed in the United States, and nearly anyone who owns a credit card or uses the Internet frequently is susceptible to falling victim to it. In order to safeguard against identity thieves, it is vital that you become aware of who is asking for your personal information and, most importantly, why. Below is a list of precautions to take if you are unsure of whether or not a request made by an institution for your personal information is legitimate.
- 1) Sometimes legitimate institutions will need to request personal information from you, like your social security number or mother's maiden name, in order to verify your identity. Before proceeding, however, you should verify if the institution in question has the information being requested already on file. If it is likely that they have already requested the information before, then there is no need to give out the information again. If you are unsure about the request's legitimacy, then call up the institution's customer service to verify the request.
- 2) If an organization requests your personal information, and you have never heard of it before, then you should check with the Better Business Bureau to see if the organization is legitimate. You should also check to see if the organization has received any complaints against them. Never give your information away to a company or organization that is not reputable or that has had a multitude of complaints.
- 3) If an individual or a company emails or calls you with a prize offer and requests your personal information, request a paper application. If the individual or company in question refuses to send an application through the mail, then do not proceed any further. However, if they do, in fact, send you an application, be sure to check if they are registered with the Better Business Bureau, and also read through all of their terms and conditions very carefully.
- 4) If you receive a phone call from your bank, or another familiar institution, requesting your personal information, you should not comply with the request right away. Instead, you should verify the phone number by checking it against the institution's official phone number. If you are still uncertain, you can always confirm the request by calling up the institution's customer service.
- 5) If you receive an unsolicited email from a familiar institution, do not click on any links that may be in the email. Instead, use the institution's official website, and navigate the links from there.
- 6) Never give out your personal information in a public space where others could easily overhear you or see any confidential papers. It is important that you are in a secure space as much as possible while giving out your information. This means avoiding public computers, and when using hotel computers, you should delete all of your history and cache after each use.
- 7) Never write unnecessary personal information on any documents, including checks or travel papers.
- 8) Finally, be sure to install anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on your personal home computers; furthermore, it is important to keep these programs up-to-date so that they function optimally. If you plan on selling your computer, make sure all of your private data is transferred onto an external hard drive and that the data is also erased from the internal hard drive.
Summary
If you follow these tips, then the likelihood that you will fall victim to identity theft will decrease significantly. Remember, if you are ever in doubt, always verify the request or the institution's validity by checking with the Better Business Bureau or the customer service hotlines of familiar institutions.