Paper Trails: Crumbs for the Identity Thief

When I think of someone stealing my identity, I often imagine a pick pocket or a burglar lurking in the shadows, waiting to grab my personal information along with my money. But often that’s not how it works. Sometimes our identity is stolen when we have a new baby, get a home loan or apply for a credit card -- sometimes our identity is stolen by employees of such institutions who steal our personal information. An identity theft is a crime where someone gains crucial pieces of identifiable information -- your driver's license number or social security number -- all in the hopes of then getting a credit card in your name, or renting an apartment in your name, getting a phone account etc., all for their own personal gain.

Take the example of Shenequa Brown, a child support collector charged with ID theft. Just this last month, this child support collector obtained the check number, routing number and bank number of her victim/client and used that money to pay for her utilities and cable.

Sometimes, however, it's not so blatant, but instead we leave a paper trail for not-so-honest employees to steal our information. We leave a paper trail in the form of birth certificates, church files, school records, diplomas, marriage and divorce certificates, voting registrations, doctor files, credit cards, land deeds and the list goes on. Certain milestones in our lives such as becoming financially independent and applying for a credit card, or having a baby, or even purchasing our own home puts our personal information on paper.

One way to prevent identity theft is not to leave a paper trail. Of course in some instances, we're putting our trust in certain institutions to keep our information confidential and we have no choice but to leave a paper trail. Sometimes the only recourse here is to closely monitor bank and credit card statements to catch the criminal quickly and also to have an identity theft service set up to help us monitor and regain our identity back quickly. But let's go over some things we can do to prevent identity theft via a paper trail.

• Don't have financial documents sent via snailmail and don't send paper checks out through the mail. Why? A thief can steal your personal information right out of your own mailbox or home. Rather, view them online. They're typically safer when stored online. Even pay your bills online through your bank's website. However that doesn't mean that we send people our personal info via email either.
• Invest in a shredder. Some crooks are attracted to the sport of dumpster diving.
• Where possible, don't use your social security number as a form of identification.

There's a lot to be improved upon here such as credit card companies not so loosely giving out our information to third party companies. But maybe we should even follow the example of our European neighbors and only use our social security number as a means of gaining our retirement benefits rather than a form of identification that is needed for loans and credit card applications that can then cause problems for many years if that information gets into the wrong hands. We can't control everything but we can be aware and cautious when we give out our personal information.