Protecting Against Identity Theft

Identity theft, the stealing of someone's personal or private information, can happen to all of us, regardless of how cautious and conservative we are with our personal information. However, taking certain precautions will greatly decrease our chances of falling victim to such a painful and distressing crime.

1. Keep Usernames and Passwords Secret and Separate

It is important to keep private your usernames and passwords for financial accounts. Work with secure sites only when making transactions, and don't give out your personal information to third parties. If you're going to write the information down in case you forget, record sensitive information as cryptic as possible. Use clues to remind yourself rather than explicitly spelling everything out. If your helpful reminders were to ever fall into the wrong hands, you would want the papers to be as useless to others as possible.

Financial documents with sensitive information should, within reason, be stored separately—passwords separate from usernames and one account separate from another. Keeping information about all of your financial accounts together is always asking for trouble. If someone finds your banking information, you should feel comfortable that they won't understand what the password is from simply having hold of your username. Similarly, you should be able to feel comfortable that just because your banking information wais stolen, your credit card accounts weren't also included on those records.

2. Vary the Information You Divulge