Just heard this so I thought I’d share…If you ever lose your wallet or purse and someone calls you to let you know they’ve found your lost goods.  Cancel everything anyway!

The few hours before you actually can get your purse or wallet back is all the extra hours criminals need to steal even more.

Okay, this is interesting…I have no idea what this kit includes.

From the site:

FCIC is the help desk for everyday life–and we’d like to help you! Avoid ID theft with a FREE package of publications about credit and identity theft. The package includes publications on credit reports, credit scores, preventing identity theft, and more. 

To get your FREE ID theft package and a FREE Consumer Information Catalog listing more than 200 valuable consumer publications, just fill in your name and address below.

http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/rc/specoffr.htm

I just signed up…will post more details when I receive it in 4 weeks. I never heard of a government agency with the acronym “GSA” actually.

Hope this never happens to anyone, but what if it does? How will you know? What do you look for? Who should I call if you think something is wrong?

Tons of articles advising you on what if your credit is stolen telling you to call your credit card companies, credit bureaus, banks, etc. But what if you think you’re just being too cautious? STOP. You can never be too cautious.

Here are the steps I take to prevent my ID from being stolen:
- I use the government’s gift of a free annual credit report. And take the time to look through your entire history to make sure nothing seems out of the ordinary. Your credit report will often contain numbers to the reporting financial company, so call them if you have any questions.
- I monitor my online account activity on a weekly basis. Credit cards, banks, investment, etc. I try not to let anything slip.
- Don’t submit your financial or personal information to any sites linked from emails if at all possible.
- Discard personal information securely. Shred, burn, destroy all personal information. I’ve debated just throwing things away, and I admit, I do sometimes. When I get lazy, I’ll rip a credit application in about 6 pieces and throw some of it in one trash can and the rest in another.
- Call my financial institution whenever there’s a question mark. Should I find something suspicious, I would immediately track down exactly when and where that happened, and then take the appropriate steps to stop it.

Here are some quotes taken from an article on msnbc.com:

Study results indicate that consumers who spot fraud online suffer an average theft of about $500. Consumers who wait for paper records and suffer ID theft suffer average losses of $4,500. 

So monitor your credit card and online account statements! So your ID is stolen…now what?

Also promising, she said, was a result showing average consumer time spent dealing with personal records cleanup from ID theft is now 28 hours, down from 33 last year. 

Do you have 28 hours, which probably doesn’t account for everything, to talk to someone over the phone explaining to them that you are, well, you? Remember,

“The fact is that nobody is more effective at preventing and protecting fraud than the individual,” he said. 

Here are some references in case ID Theft strikes you:

http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
http://www.complaints.com/directory/2004/april/18/11.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6866768/
http://www.ssa.gov/oig/hotline/when.htm
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm

And you may be interested in Credit Monitoring services.

Also, check out this post by Frugal @ My 1st Million At 33.

Larger corporations have been making strides in providing secure access beyond the primitive username password combination. At the same time, smaller financial institutions have not. At least that seems to be the case with financial institutions I use. Although, I will admit my credit card companies seem to be falling behind in that area as well. Bank of America seems to be the only one that has taken a few extra steps to protect me. I haven’t seen anything from Chase, Citi, American Express, and MBNA yet. Well, I thought it’d be interesting to take a look at a few of the systems in place.

ING (Security Page): Three field security, using a customer number, PIN, and a personal question. In my opinion this is the best security system. It’s a good combination of convenience and security. I do with they would increase the question pool though.

HSBCDirect (Security Page): HSBC uses a 2 tier system, and combination of the username/password, but then a second password for bank to bank transfers that can only be entered using your mouse. Convenient? NO. Secure? Not bad. I like this system, but it’s not really that secure. In essence the safe is locked tight, but the entrance to the bank is left wide open. Also, the buttons could be a little larger.

Bank of America (Security Page): BofA uses a typical username/password combination with a twist known as a “Sitekey.” You enter your username, and then you are presented with a Sitekey. The Sitekey is an image that will be displayed if you are looking at the authentic BofA website. This image is one you choose. If you don’t see your sitekey, then that means you shouldn’t be entering your password. I like the concept. However, I don’t like the implementation. It’s a little too clunky, and I think it’s acceptance is going to be harder because of it.