Volume 3   Issue  37                      December   2004

During the Holiday Shopping Season, Beware of Identity Theft

The Washington Post, By Michelle Singletary, December 16, 2004

Turns out lots of folks are fearful of identity theft, a crime in which someone steals key pieces of you personal and financial information in order to impersonate you to get goods and services. In one survey, 58 percent of consumers polled said they may reduce their online shopping during the holiday season because of identity theft and other privacy concerns. The online shopping study was conducted by TNS, a marketing information company, and TRUSTe, an online privacy company. Eight percent of those surveyed said they are so concerned about identity theft that they won't shop online at all.

Although online shopping has its risks, your credit card number and other personal information are just as likely to be stolen in a very low-tech way. To identity thieves, a crowded mall is what a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant is to children -- a paradise of commotion. This time of year, criminals are just waiting for you to leave your purse unattended or open as you hustle around looking for holiday gifts. They love men who carry their wallets in easy-to-pick places.

Although 77 percent of consumers claim they take precautions to keep their identity private, nearly half still carry their Social Security number in their wallet or purse, according to an American Express study. Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed don't check to see if a Web site is secure when shopping online. So, at the risk of repeating information you have already heard, here are some tips to help you avoid being a victim of identity thieves:

• Write "Check photo ID" in ink on the back of your credit card, near your signature. This is an effective way of reminding cashiers to check the credit card against your photo identification. It's just one more safety check and because it's there, my experience is that I'm asked for more ID about 90 percent of the time.

• Michael J. Zmistowski, a financial adviser in Tampa, sent this tip to his clients: While shopping, watch out for people standing nearby who have a cell phone with a camera. With the camera cell phones available now, someone can easily take a clear picture of the information on your credit card.

• Come January, you may not want to look at your credit card statements. But you must. Immediately open and check for unfamiliar purchases. In fact, keep all the receipts from your holiday shopping sprees in one place so you can cross-check them with your billing statement. This is important because without the receipts, you could easily overlook something you didn't buy.

• Don't be a victim of "phishing," which is when crooks send e-mails that look as though they come from legitimate companies requesting information from you. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, phishing e-mails persuade up to 5 percent of recipients to respond to them. When they do, consumers typically provide information such as credit card, bank and Social Security numbers or user names and passwords -- resulting in identity theft. Be suspicious of e-mail sent to you unsolicited. In the American

Express survey, 88 percent of respondents didn't have a clue what phishing was.

• Buy a shredder and make sure you use it, especially to shred any store receipts with your full credit card number.

• If you're going to shop online (and I do now), make sure the site is secure. According to the Better Business Bureau, sites that have technology to secure transactions will have "https" instead of "http" in the Web address of the page that asks for credit card information. Another way to tell whether the site is secure is if you see an icon of a locked padlock, which usually can be found at the bottom of the screen.

Finally, if you suspect that your identity has been stolen, don't wait until after the holidays to report the crime, says TrueCredit, a provider of credit management services. Immediately contact your creditors and the three major credit bureaus. Thankfully, you can call one credit bureau to put fraud alerts on all three of your credit reports.

A fraud alert is supposed to result in creditors contacting you before opening new accounts or making changes to your existing accounts. The Federal Trade Commission has a link on its Web site with steps to take if you're a victim of identity theft. Go to www.ftc.gov and click on the link for consumers.

I don't think I can say it enough: Be careful out there.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

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