Bureaus > Financial/Property Crime > Forgery Detail > Identity Theft Prevention Tips

• Don't carry your social security card!

• If you have your social security number on your driver's license, go to the Department of Motor Vehicle and have it removed.  There is a small fee.

• Don't carry your health insurance card unless you need it for that particular day!.

• Don't carry your check book.  Carry only the checks you know you will write that day!

• Don't carry any cards with your social security number on them such as; military dependent card, Medicare card, etc.  Take them out of your "hiding place", only when you will use them that day.

• Carry only one credit card and one debit card on your person!

• Pick up your mail promptly!

• Don't put bills with checks in your mail box!  Use the blue U.S. Postal mail boxes.

• Buy a cross cut shredder.  Shred everything you receive in the mail after you are done with the document, this includes magazine labels or anything with a bar code!

• If you receive any phone call or e-mail requesting any personal information, hang up the phone!  Your account holders, banks, and credit card companies have this information and would never request it.

• Don't give out any personal information to anyone through the internet, unless you initiate the contact!

• Check  your credit card and bank statements carefully for discrepancies, on line, daily, if possible.  If reviewing written statements, shred them!

• When ordering any product over the phone or internet, use your credit card, not your debit card.  The debit card is your bank account!