What Steps Do You Take To Prevent Identity Fraud?

I used to think it only happened to unsavvy seniors but I've had two people close to me have their identitys stolen and used fraudulently in the past month alone and as someone who works in IT support I've also seen a huge increase in cases of attempted and successful identity theft in the last two years.

I thought it would be a good idea to share what everyone is doing to protect their identities and maybe share some cautionary tales.

Personally the things I do to protect my identity are…

  • Use unique passwords for important accounts
    Everyone has to maintain millions of accounts these days for various things. Now I'm not going to use unique passwords for things like forum accounts but I do make sure that everything tied to my bank account has one, along with my primary email account which could be used to gain access to everything else. I also have a separate email account that is tied to my banking and paypal accounts and is used purely for this purpose, the less databases it's on the better.

  • Dispose of mail securely
    Most of your bills contain enough information to successfully steal your identity. Any bills that I haven't already opted to receive as an email I take to work and dispose of in their secure disposal bins.

  • Secured my letterbox
    Okay not my letterbox, mine is secured within my building complex, however I did recently put a lock on the letterbox at my partner's house after a replacement drivers license was stolen.

  • Verify requests for information
    If I ever receive an email or phone call requesting identifiction details, passwords, etc I always contact the person or company directly through an official channel to verify the request. This is one seems like a no-brainer but we recently sent a dummy phishing email out to all the staff at our workplace and 40% of people fell for it and handed over their credentials.

Comments

  • +1

    Use a password manager.

    Enable 2FA where ever possible.

    • +1

      Yeah I enable 2FA wherever it's offered but damn did it make my life a pain when I left my phone in an uber recently. Took a day to get access to the receipt for the trip so that i could get in touch with the driver and then I couldn't access find my iphone until a week later when I was able to go into an optus store and get a replacement SIM.

  • +2

    I use a mask. I'm Batman.

  • +1

    Regularly get your free credit report or sign up for alerts if you are willing to pay.

    Don't use public/unknown wifi

    • This is good advice. Do you know if the free credit report show applications that have been made?

      • +1

        Yes, all credit enquiries.

  • +1

    All snail mail to pobox

    • This!

      I have a PO box but itโ€™s expensive ๐Ÿ˜ž

      • I think its $150ish a year.
        With all the crap I buy from chinabay (ebay) its worth it.
        That stuff arrives when it wants to.

        And then there's all the annoying couriers that don't want to deliver to poboxes.
        inc groupon

  • +1

    Nothing. There's only one Chumlee thankfully

  • +2

    My phone Google searches incoming calls. I don't pick up unknown calls until I know who it is.

    Masked/fake numbers get detected.

    If I pick up a scam call for amusement, I never say the word "yes/okay" nor provide accurate information. The scammers are getting smart and no longer talk to me for over a minute.

    • Why not yes/okay

      Iv got the same problem - they hang up on me no matter what i say

      • In your case, they may hang up because they have all they need. A recording of you consenting. A bit of editing and "you" will be consenting to a whole lot of expensive shit.

        • Lol
          No dramas yet
          The voice I put on is of a poor innocent soul ready to be scammed.

  • tor and vpn

  • +5

    I live a life that no person would want to take over

    • +2

      police (speaking to a theft identity victim) - "the perpetrator is in that room, he's just crying and repeating over and over again how does he live like that…it was horrible"

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