Who Are You Anyway?

It's rampant. It's evil. It's coming to a town near you. It's IDENTITY THEFT.

Twenty  years ago, it may have  sounded like something from a futuristic sci-fi movie... "identity thieves" assuming your identity and stealing your life. Preposterous!

Not so today. Identity thieves may not exactly steal your life, your wife, your kids or your home, but they can steal your money and make life a nightmare for you for a good long time. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, identity theft is American's fastest growing crime and over 7 million people per year are victims of this silent, insidious evil of society.

The average person will spend over 600 hours and $1,400 dollars of their money clearing their name after an identity thief strikes.

What can you do to protect yourself? ...

There are many steps you can take to reduce the risk of having your identity stolen and if you Google "Preventing identity theft" you'll get a plethora of sites that pop up. Read. Research. And then act. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Put a lock on your mailbox. Thieves can't steal your incoming mail (pre-approved credit card offers, anyone??) if your mailbox has a lock on it.

2. Mail your outgoing letters and bills from the Post Office rather than your home. I know it sounds annoying, but when that cute little red flag is up indicating that you have outgoing mail for the postman to collect, it's also a sign for thieves to nab your mail, which often contains checks. The thieves "wash" the checks of all ink except for your signature, then poof they have a blank check, signed by you to write to whomever they choose. Pretty slick.

3. Shred shred shred. Buy a good cross-cut shredder, and get the most heavy duty one you can afford. Be sure it will take staples and credit cards, as well as several sheets of paper at once. Shred anything with your name, address, and of course, any account numbers on it. It only takes a minute and it's so worth it. Plus, shredding is a good way to let off steam.

4. Protect your Social Security Number and credit card information. There are only about a gozillion email and phone scams out there these days, so don't be fooled. NEVER give personal information over the phone or in an email and for Pete's sake, don't click through on any emails asking you to "verify your account information" or warning you that your Ebay or PayPal account has been compromised! It's just a scam to get you to input your personal information to a bogus site that will collect it and use it for fraudulent purposes.

Taking these simple precautions will help reduce your risk, limit your exposure and avoid the nightmare that is  identity theft.