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Six Ways to Help Protect Your Identity
- Before revealing personal identifying information, find out
how it will be used and if it will be shared with others. Ask
if you have a choice about the use of your information: can you
choose to have it kept confidential?
- Pay attention to your billing cycles. Follow up with creditors
if bills do not arrive on time.
- Order copies of your credit report from the three credit reporting
agencies every year. Make sure they're accurate and include only
those activities you've authorized.
- Give your Social Security number only when absolutely necessary.
Ask to use other types of identifiers when possible.
- Minimize the identification information and the number of cards
you carry to what you actually need. If your I.D. or credit cards
are lost or stolen, notify the creditors by phone immediately,
and call the credit bureaus to ask that a "fraud alert"
be placed in your file.
- Keep items with personal information in a safe place; tear them
up when you don't need them anymore. Make sure charged receipts,
copies of credit applications, insurance forms, bank checks and
statements, expired charge cards, and credit offers you get in
the mail are disposed of appropriately.
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