Ways to Minimize Your Risk of Identity Theft

The best thing you can do to minimize your risk of identity theft is ensure that your personal information is secure. While security breaches at identification and credential verification centers make headline news, it is very often small acts of criminal mischief that result in years of hardship for individual consumers. Fortunately, applying common sense can provide a measure of identity theft protection. For starters, don't leave your financial paperwork lying around your house. People you hire to provide services such as cleaning, child care, or home maintenance and repair have the opportunity to steal your information and use it for fraudulent purposes. If your home is broken into, you can bet the thieves will be looking for checkbooks and bank or credit card statements. The best thing to do is store paperwork with personally identifying information in a filing cabinet that is secured with a tamper-proof lock.