Ten simple ways to lower your risk of identity theft

Reports of Identity Theft and fraud have become increasingly more frequent and are mentioned almost daily in the news. To minimize your risk of becoming a victim, we offer ten simple ways to lower your risk.

To avoid becoming a victim of identity theft and fraud:

Order a copy of your credit report. Make sure your credit report is accurate, representing only those activities you authorized. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act entitles you to a free credit report every 12 months from each of the three national credit bureaus. To order your free credit report click here.
Make your PINs and passwords difficult to guess. Don't use passwords that can be traced to your personal information – avoid using your birth date, maiden name, phone number, etc. When choosing passwords, use a combination of numbers, symbols, and upper and lower case letters.
Pay attention to your billing cycles. Delayed bills could mean someone changed your account information or your mailing address. If your account statement is late, call your credit card company or credit union directly.
Guard your personal information, credit card numbers and passwords. Be careful with your information, never write passwords or personal identification numbers (PINs) on the back of your card or store the details in your wallet and don't give out personal information on the phone, online or through the mail unless you initiate the contact or know the caller.
Prevent mail theft. Put all outgoing mail directly in U.S. Postal Service collection boxes or take it to your local post office. If you're going on vacation, place a hold on your mail at the post office.
Always review account statements. Don't just glance over the information quickly, review your financial and credit card statements carefully for unknown transactions. If you find an unknown charge, contact the account company directly.
Shred any documents that contain personal information before disposing. Consider buying an inexpensive wastebasket-size shredder to destroy all your discarded mail, outdated business cards, cancelled checks, credit card and debit card receipts, bank statements, credit applications, insurance forms, physician statements, etc.
Sign new credit, debit and ATM cards. As soon as you receive a new credit, debit or ATM card, sign the back of the card for verification purposes. You should then immediately destroy your old card(s).
Guard your online purchases. When making purchases online, never enter your credit card or bank information before making sure the website is secure. Websites that use secure servers will begin with "https://" instead of the usual "http://". The extra "s" indicates the use of a secure server. You should also look on your browser for a small padlock (or key) to indicate whether a site is secure. Often, this will be towards the bottom right of the screen.
Switch to electronic banking. Sign up for NWFCU's NWLink Internet Banking with Bill Payer and eStatements to prevent Identity Theft and help reduce the paper trail. You may also want to sign up for our Fraud Prevention e-LERT to keep you up-to-date on the latest scams that attempt to steal your confidential and personal information. The Fraud Prevention e-LERT will immediately advise you when we have added a new article or warning to the ‘Fraud Alerts' section of our website.