5 Ingenious Ways You Can Prevent Identity Theft This Thanksgiving

Every single year thousands of people fall victim to identity theft during the holidays. This is a time of joy, relaxation and enjoyment and many people relax their guard allowing scammers to take hold of their sensitive information. You can prevent identity theft by using common sense, intuition and good judgment along with a few tips included in this article to help keep your credit card and bank information from falling into the wrong hands.

Never click the links in any e-mail that needs any account Information. This is a very easy and quick trick done by scammers to steal your account information. They will simply copy the header or logo of a bank or company with which you use an account and ask you to login or submit information. Many times your back will ask you to call them to rectify the problem rather than fix it through e-mail correspondence. Sometimes even simply clicking the link may activate a virus or a keylogger that may stay on your computer system and record your sensitive information for months or even years and then send it back to the scammer.

Be careful just who you write checks to. Many people write checks without knowing how crucial the information on it can be to a scammer or identity theft expert. If a check that you sent by mail he intercepted, it will display your name address, bank account number, bad name and your signature. This is information that someone can use to simply wipe your account clean. You should simply try to write checks as infrequently as possible or only write checks to established businesses and companies with fraud protection guarantees.

Make sure that your mailbox as a secure lock and ensure that mail can only be put in and not taken out. Your mailbox can be raided by any scam artist to yield a treasure trove of information. It contains many different items containing personal data that a potential thief can use to get your money, even more personal dental or apply for credit cards. You should ensure that once mail is delivered, it is picked up promptly. You should also shred all sensitive information before placing it in the garbage since this is another means for identity theft to occur. You could also consequently invest in a P.O. Box which ensures that your letters containing sensitive financial and personal information are secure.

Now this may seem like a lot of work and a lot of hassle for something that has a very low probability of occurring. These tips all help to lower the probability of identity theft and also help to reduce the chance of a scammer disrupting your precious holiday season, and that alone is worth the trouble.

References
1. http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/insurancelegalissues/a/identitytheft.htm

2. http://netsecurity.about.com/od/newsandeditorial1/a/aaidenttheft.htm