Identity Thief tip

[MNeagle]

From the Sept. 2010 Reader's Digest:


Watch your back.In line at the grocery store, I'll hold my phone like I'm looking at the screen and snap your card as you're using it. Next thing you know, I'm ordering things online - on your dime.

That's me driving through your neighborhood at 3 a.m. on trash day. I fill my trunk with bags of garbage from different houses, then sort later.


Just a few I thought were worth passing along.

[Glass]

I pay cash. Everywhere.

I use ATM and I check machine for skimmers then look around for nosey people. Then I count cash dispensed so the ATM camera can see it, in case it is incorrect.

Then I pay cash. Everywhere.

I'd like to know how, by watching you type in your pin this enables someone to steal your credits. Don't they need the card, or at least to have skimmed it?

People working in stores are the biggest risk to your cards as they are outside the banking network and you are relying on the store owner to employ only honest people. In Australia, EFTPOS which is the instore ATM network is the biggest risk as employees skim the cards as you use them. Then they sell that info on. Eventually they can correlate the source and shut them down but real damage can be done before hand.

[Spectrism]

Nothing goes out in my garbage with names or addresses. I burn ALL identifiable papers.

[ximmy]

good tip on the trash... I take any documents with acct. numbers and rip them in half. Half goes in my garbage at home... half at work... random times.

[Twisted Titan]

Use Cash as much as possible and shred the rest.

[Awoke]

I'd like to know how, by watching you type in your pin this enables someone to steal your credits. Don't they need the card, or at least to have skimmed it?


If it's a credit card, they just need the number and expiry date,

[hoarder]

I'd like to know how, by watching you type in your pin this enables someone to steal your credits. Don't they need the card, or at least to have skimmed it?


If it's a credit card, they just need the number and expiry date,
Nowadays you can't do much with a credit card number. You need to either swipe it or provide the three digit code on the back.
As usual, Readers Digest gives outdated tips.

[Awoke]

I'd like to know how, by watching you type in your pin this enables someone to steal your credits. Don't they need the card, or at least to have skimmed it?


If it's a credit card, they just need the number and expiry date,
Nowadays you can't do much with a credit card number. You need to either swipe it or provide the three digit code on the back.
As usual, Readers Digest gives outdated tips.


Wrong. I order online all the time.

I forgot to mention you also need the name on the card.

So, Name, number, Expiry date, that's it.

ONCE in a while, they will ask you for the 3-digit number on the back side of the card, but not all the time.

[hoarder]

Wrong. I order online all the time.

I forgot to mention you also need the name on the card.

So, Name, number, Expiry date, that's it.

ONCE in a while, they will ask you for the 3-digit number on the back side of the card, but not all the time.


I order online often as well and IIRC, I have always been asked for the code. Maybe it's different in different countries.

[1970 silver art]

good tip on the trash... I take any documents with acct. numbers and rip them in half. Half goes in my garbage at home... half at work... random times.


Shredding and documents with sensitive personal information is better IMO. Getting a cross-cut shredder and shredding those documents using a cross-cut shredder will prevent an identity thief from stealing any personal information from the destroyed documents. I have a cross-cut shredder and I use it to destroy any douments that I no longer need.

[AndreaGail]

like most i'll use cash as much as possible

shred the rest and other unneeded important documents, then mix the scraps and put a handful or two into the trash needed to be taken out

I don't have an ATM though. just one more card that can be stolen, so i just get money the old fashioned way

[Spectrism]

good tip on the trash... I take any documents with acct. numbers and rip them in half. Half goes in my garbage at home... half at work... random times.


Shredding and documents with sensitive personal information is better IMO. Getting a cross-cut shredder and shredding those documents using a cross-cut shredder will prevent an identity thief from stealing any personal information from the destroyed documents. I have a cross-cut shredder and I use it to destroy any douments that I no longer need.


Do you throw junk mail into the trash? Magazines addressed to you?

I burn ALL things that have names, adresses, numerical info, bar codes... etc. Nothing with information goes into the trash.

[Awoke]

I burn ALL things that have names, adresses, numerical info, bar codes... etc. Nothing with information goes into the trash.


Ditto.

[1970 silver art]

Spectrism,

I do not subscribe to any magazines and I do not get a lot of junk mail. Sometimes I might go 2 days without any mail at all. If I get any junk mail that contains any sensitive information, then I will just shred it after I finish looking at it. However, I have been behind on my shredding and as a result, I accumulated some junk mail in my apartment that I needs to be shredded. I do not put any junk mail in the trash.

[StackerKen]

All of my paper trash goes in the the compost bin

The worms eat it and make soil :)

[Serpo]

All of my paper trash goes in the the compost bin

The worms eat it and make soil :)


The worms havnt learnt to read yet......just a matter of time