One You Blog

Don’t Carry It Unless You Need It

We all tend to have this habit of carrying everything around in our wallets or purses all the time.  It it amazing when you consider how risky this behavior is. Wallets and purses are stolen quite regularly, and the more that you have in their, the more the thief just got.

The things we keep in our wallets are an identity theft buffet. In the average wallet you may be able to find:

• Drivers License
• Bank or ATM Card
• Credit Cards (usually more than one)
• Discount Cards
• Professional Association Cards, Certifications and Licenses (depending on your professions)
• Health Insurance Cards
• Employee ID’s

This means that if your wallet falls into the wrong hands they have access to information on your:

• Bank and Credit Accounts (to spend your money)
• Your Place of work and Profession  ( to open new lines of credit with)
• A List of Handy Places You Shop (so that they don’t get flagged by your company right away)

You can see the danger here. The best way to minimize the risk is to not carry around things you don’t need. Limit the amount of information someone might get if they stole your wallet.  Do you really have to carry around 3 credit cards? Could you stow your employee ID in the car when you aren’t using it?

(Image Credit)

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Mail and Identity Theft: Are you being Careful?

envelope

There are many ways that your identity can be stolen. Most people believe that staying safe online will help them avoid this crime. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The mail that arrives everyday in your box may be targeted by criminals. Is this something that you have thought about in the past?

Here is the most common way that your identity can be stolen through the mail:

A criminal takes your mail from the box or out of the trash. Believe it or not there are people who will go through your garbage in hunt of important documents that list your credit card info, social security number, birth date, etc. Protect yourself against this by purchasing a mailbox with a lock, and shredding any and all important papers before disposing of them.

This sounds so far-fetched that many people never think twice. If you get lazy you are leaving the door wide open for your identity to be stolen. With so much confidential information being mailed to your house on a regular basis it is important to keep a close eye on your mail. Even though identity theft via the internet has picked up steam over the past few years, there are still many criminals who will rely on the postal system to get the information they need to ruin your life.

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Welcome To The One You Security Blog

Thanks for coming by. One You Security is a company that helps people protect their own and their family’s identity. In today’s information age, privacy and identity are complex subjects and that’s what we’ll be exploring here.

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