It's a shame, more than 11.6 million adults were victims of identity theft in 2011, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.
We many get some laughs as this week we got the opening of the movie, "Identity Thief," the story focuses on a man played by Jason Bateman who's hit hard by identity theft when a woman ( Melissa McCarthy ) racks up credit card charges in his name, but this is a serious problem that could affect you today or tomorrow.
Equifax Inc. sees this problem happen every day and their Personal Services division is providing tips to avoid becoming a real-life victim.
Equifax has always been about education, and now more than ever it's important.
In the federal fiscal year 2012, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Identity Protection Specialized Unit received 448,809 cases od identity theft, up nearly 80 percent over the previous year.
Here are Equifax's tips to prevent identity theft:
Keep birth certificates, Social Security cards and other personal documents in a lockbox in your home. Make sure they are put away when someone is working in your home or even if you have a roommate.
When disposing of documents, use a diagonal shredder, which makes documents harder to piece together than a traditional shredder does.
Don't leave outgoing bills, government forms or tax forms in a mailbox. Take them directly to the post office. Have your mail held by the post office while on vacation.
Don't put your driver's license number on your personal checks. Consider writing just your first initial and last name instead of your full name.
Don't toss credit card receipts in public places. (Purchase a shredder)
Install anti-virus software, anti-malware software and a firewall on your computer and keep them up to date. A tech-savvy identity thief can use a virus to get personal information from your computer without you even knowing.
Use unique passwords that are different for each website.
Don't put your birthdate or other sensitive information on your social media accounts, even just the month and day. A thief can figure out the year you were born by looking at your posts.
You're entitled to one free credit report each year, which you can obtain at www.annualcreditreport.com. Review your report for unfamiliar lines of credit, an account you didn't open, errors in your personal information or Social Security number.
Equifax also thinks you might want to consider a credit monitoring and identity theft protection product for yourself such as Equifax Complete™ Premier Plan, or for your family, such as Equifax Complete™ Family Plan, which can help protect the identities of two adults and up to four minor children in one comprehensive plan.
You can never be too safe, or do enough to protect your personal information, these tips from Equifax will be a start.
And enjoy "Identity Thief" the movie if you go see it.
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