(NU) - In the course of theday, you do many activities thatput your personal information atrisk — from writing a check atthe store to charging merchandisein person or over the phone. Youmay not think twice about thesetransactions, but others might.

Identity theft — when a per-petrator assumes someone’s iden-tity for personal or financial gain,like stealing a credit card to makefinancial transactions in the vic-tim’s name — is the fastest-grow-ing crime in America.

According to the U.S. PostalInspection Service, there were al-most 10 million cases of identitytheft in 2004, which cost con-sumers $5 billion.

The National Citizens’ CrimePrevention Campaign, sponsoredby the National Crime PreventionCouncil, aims to educate con-sumers about what they can do toprevent identity theft. The coun-cil offers the following tips.

• Do not give out your per-sonal information unless you ini-tiate the contact or know the per-son or company with whom youare dealing. Also, never disclosepersonal information, such as aSocial Security number or bankaccount number, in response to anemail. Legitimate businesses willnot ask you to do this.

• Do not disclose your creditcard number to an online vendorunless it is encrypted and the siteis secure. Look at the first part ofthe Web address on your brows-er. It should read “https://.”

• Do not write your Social Se-curity number or telephone numberon checks or credit card receipts.

• Remove all documents withpersonal information from yourhard drive before discarding yourcomputer or sending it in for re-pair.

• Shred discarded documents,including preapproved credit cardapplications, bank statements,store receipts and utility bills.“Dumpster divers” can gain ac-cess to your personal informationif such items are thrown in thetrash.

• Cancel all credit cards thathave not been used in the last sixmonths. Open credit is a primetarget for thieves.

• Order your credit report atleast twice a year and report anymistakes to the credit reportingagency in writing.

If you are a victim of identitytheft, contact your local policedepartment as soon as possible.If your identity was stolen in onejurisdiction but used in another,you may have to report the crimein both jurisdictions.

To learn more about prevent-ing identity theft, visit the Na-tional Crime Prevention Council’sWeb sites at www.weprevent.organd www.ncpc.org.

7 Tips on PreventingIdentity Theft

CRIME PREVENTION

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