Identity theft can happen any time of year. However, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) reminds you to keep your wits about you every holiday season.
You may be busy and distracted with shopping crowds and twinkling lights. You may also have extra credit cards on hand while you're out and about. This means it's a little more likely that thieves can steal valuable information.
As the season moves on, be mindful of what you carry in your wallet -- and store things you don't need in a safe place. Anything that has your Social Security Number on it does not need to go everywhere you go. If you write your PINs on credit and debit cards, try a few other ways to use PINs securely.
Finally, a gift idea for the person who has everything (except time to deal with ID theft): Gail Cunningham of the NFCC suggests giving personal shredders to show how much you care.
Further reading:
Identity theft has become a major, major problem! And living without protection is like living in a crime infested neighborhood and not having protection on your home. You would probably at least have a really good guard dog and a fence right? Well, not protecting your identity today is the equivalent of living in that neighborhood and refusing to even lock your door. It’s so sad that it’s come to this, but there are always tradeoffs in life. Because we want better medical coverage and a nicer car we pay more to protect and insure them.
Likewise, with something as amazing as the World Wide Web there come tradeoffs also. One tradeoff for us having access to almost everything is that others have access to almost everything about us, our information. And that includes our personal information like social security numbers, banking information and even your medical and criminal history.
Luckily there is a lot of information out to help us understand and protect ourselves from these heartless criminals. Here is an informational website put together to help you and your family. We hope you find it helpful. ID theft protection