Identity Health

Identity theft..It sucks! I have been battling this condition on and off for the past four years. I have no idea how it happened but some woman in Texas, who — by the way — I cannot GET her identity information, took over my married name and using it along with my social security number opened a cable account. I had no knowledge of what had happened for seven months.  It was only after she’d racked up over $800 in bills and skipped out on the payment did I receive a letter from a collections company. The processor was empathetic and helped me get through to the cable company and instructed me on how to handle reporting the crime to the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. I put my account on ID theft alert and after two years considered the case closed. THEN it happened again at the end of last year. SAME CHICK. Same location, but this time it was an energy company. How did she get away with the same scam again! I obviously was not vigilant enough.  This time the process dude wasn’t so patient. I had to go to the police department to file a report, have the report signed by a notary and send a lengthy questionnaire to his collections office. I felt like the criminal! It’s been almost 6 months and I’m still battling this financial demon.

Though I am not sure how this happened, obviously I was careless at some point down the line and now I’m paying the price. You don’t have to be caught in the same mess as me if you take the right precautions.

Here are a few wise moves.

Lighten your load.  I don’t know about you but my wallet always used to weigh me down. Not the coinage, yes that is heavy, but all that plastic! If getting that heavy weight off your shoulder isn’t convincing enough how about this, thirty percent of fraud begins with a stolen wallet, checkbook or credit card. You don’t need to carry around a credit card for every store, your checkbook, PIN code cheat sheet and your soch card. One credit card can carry you through a whole day of shopping, maybe even a month! If that one gets lost or stolen it’s easier to report and cancel.

Check and balances. I’m sure you’ve gotten at least one call in the last five years from your credit card carrier alerting you to unusual activity. But oftentimes there is a lag between when they call you and when your card is stolen. Lucky me (jk) I’ve had this experience as well. Several years ago, before my Texas nemesis, a smarmy thief managed to detect my credit card numbers from my gas card. So, not cool. Now there is a whole industry in credit card monitoring services. These companies access a monthly fee for their service, but it’s well worth the price. They stay on top of the your cards daily and handle any suspicious activity. I just signed up for a service through Victoria Secret. It includes all kinds of in-store discounts and bonuses. Now that’s a fun way to protect your assets.

Be a shred head. DO NOT just dump financial mail in the trash. Anything that includes credit card information, social security numbers, bank statement info, tax info or other sensitive identifiers should be destroyed. Invest in a confetti shredder and go to town. I employed my younger daughter to do the job, she was a shred demon and totally earned her allowance.

Go paperless. Pay your monthly bills on-line. Banking institutions are doing their best to constantly track ahead of on-line thievery. It’s safer than dropping your bills in the post box outside your house, faster, more efficient, convenient and I love being able to schedule auto-pays. Now I never get penalized with late fees.

Scrub your software. If you like the idea of paperless be smart and take measures to detract on-line thieves. The most popular browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer so most of the nasty viruses are designed to infiltrate that ISP. Use other browsers like Firefox, Bing or Opera. Another great trick is to get a second or even third free e-mail account from Hotmail, Yahoo or Google.  Segregate your online shopping from banking and private correspondence. Don’t use your name or familiar words as a part of any address.

Be inky. One signed check and a pan of acetone can clean out a bank account. Acetone is the active ingredient in nail polish remover. A criminal can tape over your signature front and back then give your check an acetone bath. When it dries it’s a blank check with your sig. Prevent this with a fraud free Uni-ball gel pen. To further protect your checking account, next time you order your checks remember less is more. Print your initials and last name instead of your full name, avoid noting your phone number, order the checks from your bank instead of an independent vendor and ask for paper that acetone stains.

Be safe, be smart, protect your hard earned cash and your squeaky clean ID.