Protect Your Credit Score: Tips for Avoiding Identity Theft (PART TWO)

Easier than fixing the damages that are a result of an identity theft crime is preventing the fraud in the first place!  While not all identity theft crimes can be prevented, many can if you take appropriate measures to avoid being victimized.

Fighting Identity Theft

Check Bank Statements Regularly

With online banking available at the majority of United States banks, there is no reason why individuals should not be able to effectively monitor their bank accounts.  When you receive your monthly statements in the mail, be sure to look them over thoroughly for any unauthorized transactions or things that you don't remember.  Additionally, spend a few minutes each week checking your online statement so you can see things faster.

Additionally, be sure to look at credit card statements for any unauthorized purchases.  It's amazing the number of people who don't even look at their credit card statements!  You may wish to cancel the mailing of credit card statements and request to view all credit statements online- remember, more theft occurs via the postal mail system than occurs via the internet.

Understand Computers & Technology

In comparison to other means of identity theft, a very small percentage of identity theft actually occurs online- but there are precautionary measures you should take when using technology in order to further protect yourself.   You might not want to use public access computers for banking or financial transactions, because thiefs use tracking software that might be able to grab the information you type in from a public computer.  Additionally, a wireless connection is a little less secure than a wired connection as it is a newer technology and the security isn't as strong as traditional internet connections.  Using personal firewalls, password-protection and encryption are all excellent ways to minimize the possibilities of a thief hacking your wireless connection.

Whenever you receive email requests for financial and/or personal information, avoid entering personal information!  Most of these emails are scams, and while they may look like they are coming from your financial institution, they are probably not.  Don't even click links in these emails, because they can connect you to software that will be able to retrieve your financial and personal information from your computer without you even entering the data.  Call your company and let them know of the email so they can look into stopping the scam.

SmartPhones Don't Delete

You've no doubt heard of the famous Paris Hilton telephone hacking, where all of the information and phone numbers stored on her mobile phone were stolen and then posted online for all to access.  While no one is likely to want the phone numbers you've saved in your mobile phone, there are smart phones that operate like PDA's and include storage for all of your data so it's easily accessible whenever you need it.  Beware, however, that many smartphones like Blackberry and Palm Treo do not actually "delete" information when you use the delete function on the phone.  Instead, the phone deletes the "pointers" that point to the stored information on the phones' servers.  Anyone who understands how to access this information or has the software to recover information can obtain it and use it.

If you have one of these phones that allows you to store all of your information- make sure you contact your phone cmpany or device manufacturer for the instructions for actually deleting the information that you want to delete.  Consider carefully the type of information you store in these phones in case the phone is stolen or you misplace it.   You can also try www.wirelessrecycling.com for detailed instructions for deleting.