These days you can not be too careful with your personal identifying information. My husband is a retired police officer and knows the suffering people endure when their identity is stolen. In order to help secure your identity and personal information here are some tips to prevent you from becoming a victim.
Obtain a post office box at you local post office. Thieves love to follow the mail person around neighborhoods and get the schedule figured out. Once they are comfortable and know who does and does not check their mailboxes during certain periods of time, they go to the mail box and obtain their mail. There are plenty of items of your personal identity in junk mail, credit card statements, utility and insurance bills, etc. You get the picture.
One of the most forgotten things to put out the night before to help out the crooks is your trash. These people like to come around and dig in your trash for your personal information. If you know when the trash comes each day try to set it out as late as you can so that it is not up for the grabbing. If possible, have a neighbor set it out for you if you have to leave for work early in the morning. My husband said this was how they obtained useful information on bad guys was to dig through their trash in the morning to find out what they were up too.
Don't place your outgoing mail in your mail box. Take it to the post office or work and mail it from there when the post office shows up for the employers mail.
Shred everything that may have your personal information on it. And get a cross cut shredder, not a straight shredder so these suspecting bad guys can not glue or tape your document back together and get your info to purchase all they can from the Home Shopping Network on your credit.
Know when your mail is delivered if you are going to have it delivered at home. Try to pick it immediately or have a neighbor get it until you can get home. The best advice is to get a post office box.
If you are like me you get thousands of credit card offers from unsolicited vendors. There is a way to stop this mail from coming to you. Call 888-5-OPTOUT. It is a pre-recorded message and will ask for your SSN, but it is very secure and will stop this type of credit information from showing up at your mail box.
If you suspect anything is afoul with your credit, call your credit grantor immediately and have them check your accounts. Early detection is the best way to curb thieves from getting off with your credit and will put a stop to it almost immediately and save you tons of worries and headaches from your creditors.
I hope this information is valuable to you and if it saves just 1 person from the grief this causes, I have done good.
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