Armando Moreno

In August, 2008, CNN and many other news agencies reported on the largest case of identity theft ever. More than 100million credit card numbers were stolen by an identity theft ring that hacked into the computer networks of nine national retail chains, including Barnes & Noble, TJX Cos, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and OfficeMax.

In most States, by law, when a data breach occurs, a company is required to send a letter to notify customers of their possible exposure, said Steve Ely, a divisional president for credit monitoring company Equifax Inc. In the article from CNN, Ely said companies often downplay the problem to minimize damage to their reputation. “Ninety-nine percent of the time breach letters look like a piece of junk mail, and people throw them away.”

And indictments like those announced in August aren’t likely to prevent your data from getting into the hands of other criminals, warned Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit in San Diego.

“Even though they may have found the individuals,” said Stephens, “that is no guarantee that that information is not out there and available to people to use for fraudulent purchases.”

Everyone should follow these simple steps. Carry as few credit cards as possible, and leave your Social Security card locked up at home. Never give out personal information by phone, mail or on the Internet unless you initiated the exchange and are clear why you’re sharing such details. Use a shredder.

Other important steps include emptying your mailbox as soon as possible; shredding or tearing up any identifying information before throwing them in the garbage. Also make sure online purchases are from secure sites, one good sign is that the address bar turns green in the most recent versions of Web browsers.

Also, you should limit or eliminate the use of debit or check cards linked to bank accounts, especially online. You should also regularly monitor your credit report. You can do this by ordering your yearly free credit report but for even better protection could include daily monitoring through a credit monitoring service.

Upon request, Federal law requires each of the three national credit reporting companies, Experian, Equifax and Transunion, to provide Americans with one free credit report each year. The reports can be obtained at http://www.annualcreditreport.com or by certified mail or phone. Many people recommend rotating requests among the three bureaus, obtaining a report every four months.

If that sounds like too much work for you, consider hiring a credit protection service. You should carefully scrutinize what the service offers.

Keep in mind though that not all service are created equally. One of the best credit monitoring companies I’ve found is TrustedID. How good are they, well, it is like having your own personal identity guard on duty 365 days a year to protect your credit and your identity.

I strongly encourage you to take a few simple steps to protect yourself from identity theft, which affects as many as 8 million Americans each year, costing billions of dollars and countless hours to correct the problems it creates.

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Tags: credit protection, credit report