Advice for Identity Theft Prevention

Identity theft prevention is very important, simply because having your identity stolen could have

a significant impact on your finances and on your daily life. Since you face potential risks for

having your identity stolen both on the internet and off, you need to know techniques and tips for

safeguarding your personal identity both on the web and in real life.

Online Identity Theft Prevention Tips

There are a lot of opportunities for dishonest people to steal your personal identifying information

when you use the Internet. However, by simply following some basic safety precautions, you can

do a great deal to decrease the risks of online identity theft. Probably the most important thing you

can do is to make sure you only provide personal data on secure sites. You can look to the website

address bar to ascertain if the site is secure, as the site will read “HTTPS” instead of just “HTTP.”

There should also be a little lock on the bottom of the screen on secure sites. You should not only

be careful as to which websites you give personal data too, but you also need to be cautious about

ever giving personal information out over email or over a network that isn't secure.

Identity Theft Prevention Offline

In the real world, you face the possibility of identity theft as well. You can combat this by

shredding any mail that comes with personal identifying data. You can even opt out of credit card

offers and other marketing materials that might have too many personal details on the mailers.

Options for Identity Theft Prevention

One other approach to protecting yourself from identity theft involves using identity theft

prevention services. For example, IDENTITY GUARD® helps you in the fight against identity

theft by notifying you if certain specific information posts to your credit report that implies your

identity has been compromised. This enables you to catch an identity thief much more quickly

when they get started so you don’t have lots of damage to unravel from the use of your data. The

quicker you discover a thief has used your identifying information, the easier it is for you to get

your good name back and protect yourself financially. As an example, if you discover out that a

credit card has been opened in your name, you can contact the creditor immediately, close the

account, put a freeze on your credit so that no further accounts can be opened and contact the

police for an investigation. It is a lot simpler to do this with one card than when 20 have been

opened already, so a timely alert regarding certain triggering events can be an invaluable identity

theft prevention asset. To start protecting your identity, visit www.identityguard.com today.