A friend of mine had her identity stolen the other day and I was reminded of just easy it is to have this happen and we can protect ourselves. One easy thing we can do is as simple as keeping a black marker handy when opening the mail. When you receive those pesky credit card offers in the mail, open them, use the marker to "black-out" your name everywhere it appears on the offer as well as any "offer codes", before we toss them into the trash.
A few other things we can do are pretty simple too..don't write checks to individuals. The lawn care guy, the cleaning service or the handyman you hire to make small repairs. I stopped writing checks years ago at the retail & grocery stores, when debit cards were issued. It's my opinion checks are the worst way to pay for anything other than our bills, but last week a friend paid her bills. Put them in her mail box. Someone stole the bills & checks. Whoever stole them printed their own checks using the check numbers, bank routing number & account number off her checks, checks she had used to pay the bills. They printed the checks to match a fake identity. Wrote a check for goods at Walmart & a convenience store, totaling the amount of the bills she had paid. She was really lucky...she banks online and as a routine she was online checking her banking. Noticed a check written for $300.00 to a convenience store. Immediately called her husband. He had not been there and certainly had not bought $300.00 worth of gas or junk food! She immediately called her bank, was able to stop the transaction but there had already been a check cashed at Walmart in the amount of $500.00.
Pay your bills online.
Bank online....check your credit card and banking activity everyday.
Take your bills to a post office or postal outlet, especially if you live in a rural area and your mail box is not right outside your front door.
Have your income checks direct deposited...they can make fake ID and cash your checks.
more helpful tips...
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