Protecting yourself against identity theft Identity theft happens in a multitude of ways.  It can range from somebody using your credit card details illegally to make purchases over the internet or telephone, through to having your entire identity assumed by another person to open bank accounts, take out loans, and conduct other business illegally in your name. By introducing some practical precautions into everyday life, you can take an active role in reducing the risk that your identity may be used without your consent or knowledge.

WAYS YOUR IDENTITY COULD BE STOLEN

• Your wallet or purse contains personal information such as your icence, credit and ATM cards, Medicare card and other personal documents, that may be stolen.
• Your home is burgled and your personal information and documents, or those of close family members, may be taken.
• Many important documents are posted to you and can be stolen from your letterbox. For example, bank and credit card statements, new cheque books, ATM and credit cards, taxation returns or cheques, or pre-approved credit card offers. You may be unaware that hese were sent to you if they do not arrive.
• Your mail may be diverted to another address. It is simple for a thief to use a false identity and fill in a ‘change of address’ form.
• Your rubbish (or that of businesses you have dealt with) may be searched. Information found in the garbage could provide a thief with a head start in stealing your identity.
• You may be the victim of a scam and be conned into providing personal information over the telephone or by email.
• Your personal computer may be hacked into, or hackers may get into the computers of businesses that hold your personal information.
• Your ATM or EFTPOS transactions may be monitored by hidden devices or seen by the person next in the queue. Your password or PIN may be noted for subsequent unauthorised use.
• Your personal information may be stolen and used or sold by employees of legitimate businesses: for example, credit card skimming at retail outlets or restaurants (Credit card skimming occurs when your credit or EFTPOS cards are secretly ‘skimmed’ with a small device that copies the information on the card’s magnetic strip. Your information can then be transferred to a blank credit card to be used without your knowledge. For example, card skimming may occur by use of a small hand held device by staff in retail outlets such as restaurants or petrol stations, or by criminals inserting a small hidden device in the card slot of EFTPOS or ATM outlets).

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO PREVENT YOURSELF FROM FALLING VICTIM TO IDENTITY THEFT

Order a copy of your credit report regularly. Your credit report contains important information about you and your credit history. It also contains information on most credit applications made in your name. By checking your own credit report regularly you can often catch any unauthorised activity. Such activity may indicate that your identity has been stolen. There are three main credit reporting agencies in Australia. These are Baycorp Advantage ( www.mycreditfile.com.au ) , Dun and Bradstreet ( www.dnb.com.au ), and the Tasmanian Collection Service ( www.tascol.com.au ). You will find contact details in this kit.

Place passwords on all your important accounts. Passwords help provide extra protection to important information such as credit card and bank accounts, phone and other utility accounts. Avoid using obvious passwords such as telephone numbers, birth dates or your mother’s maiden name. Instead use passwords and PINs that will be difficult for someone else to figure out. Don’t use the same password on different accounts, such as bank, video card, internet service provider. Be careful of writing your passwords down or storing them on your computer.

Secure your personal information. If possible, secure all personal information at home in a lockable filing cabinet or safe. If you share accommodation or have maintenance or cleaning services in or around your home regularly, having a secure place for such documents is particularly important. Collect new cheque books or credit cards in person from the bank. Don’t leave documents such as registration papers, driver’s licences, utility bills or traffic fines in the car glove box. Don’t lend your personal documents to others. Once they are out of your control, you cannot be sure how they are used.

Don’t carry personal information unless you have to. Unless you really need to, do not carry important documents around with you outside your home. Never carry your PIN in your wallet with the ATM card. When you leave the house, carry only the ATM and credit cards you need. Don’t carry documents like your passport or birth certificate unless you have to. Be wary of people acting suspiciously at ATMs, and avoid using ATM or EFTPOS facilities that look as if they have been tampered with.

Destroy personal information before disposal. Before placing old bills, records or expired cards in the rubbish ensure that any identifying information is destroyed. If you get a pre-approved credit card and you don’t want to accept or activate that card, make sure you destroy identifying information before throwing it away. This can be done in the same way as you should destroy all old records, files, bills, expired credit cards or other cards—by tearing, cutting up, or burning them before throwing them in the rubbish. Home shredders can be a good investment.

Avoid giving personal information out over the phone, by mail or on the internet. Make sure you know who you are dealing with before you give out personal information. Only provide the minimum information necessary to those with whom you have initiated contact or whom you have checked independently. Always ask why your information is needed and how it is going to be used. Don’t be afraid to say NO or seek further advice before disclosing anything. Be suspicious when things don’t seem right. Unsolicited offers that seem too good to be true or that require you to give out bank account or other personal information are likely to be scams.

Secure your mail. Make sure you have a secure lockable letterbox and only post mail at secure, official post boxes. Make sure your letterbox is large enough to accept and hold mail in the quantity and size you normally get. Quickly remove mail from your mailbox after it is delivered. If you are going away, have it held at the post office. If the volume of mail drops off substantially, check with the post office to see if anyone has filed a change of address form in your name.

Check your billing and account records carefully. By carefully checking all transactions on your banking and credit card accounts you may be able to detect potential identity theft early. Follow up if your bills or accounts don’t arrive on time. Missing records or accounts could indicate that your accounts have been taken by a thief who has changed your billing address.

Limit the amount of credit you have in accounts. For certain transations, such as those made by telephone or on the internet, it is best to use a separate account with a low credit limit, so that if the account is misused, the loss will be minimised.

Write cheques and fill out forms carefully. Make sure that you fill out cheques and forms carefully so that they cannot be altered easily. Always ‘cross’ cheques and mark them ‘not negotiable’ and make sure that the payee is correctly identified. In cheques and other forms put a line through unused spaces.

What if your wallet, purse or credit cards are lost or stolen? Contact your bank or credit provider immediately and cancel all cards and freeze all accounts to which the thief may have gained access. Make sure you have some way of accessing cash for the time it will take to get new cards issued. Make sure you ask that all new cards and account numbers  are issued with new Personal Identification Numbers (PINs). It is also important that you report the theft or loss to the police. Your identification could be used to commit other criminal offences.

List all your account details. Keep a list of all your accounts and credit cards in a safe place. Also make a list of contact numbers in case those account details are stolen, or if you lose your wallet or purse. It is important to act quickly if personal information is compromised.

Remove your name from mailing lists. If you receive mail addressed to you from companies you have not had any dealings with, or receive pre-approved credit cards that you did not apply for, do not just throw these in the rubbish and forget about them. Contact the company or credit provider making the offer and ask that your name be removed from any further mailing lists. It is particularly important to take this action if you are unexpectedly offered a pre-approved credit card.



HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR COMPUTER SECURITY

Use passwords. Passwords help provide extra protection to important information stored on your computer. Avoid using obvious passwords, such as telephone numbers, birth dates or your mother’s maiden name. Use passwords that will be hard to guess, are at least 7 characters long and incorporates a combination of letters, numbers and symbols, e.g. t25H1gG#.

Update your password. Regularly change the password on your PC and laptop. Remember to use a combination of numbers and letters. You may wish to consider using encryption software. DO NOT use automatic log in features that save your user name and password. Always remember to log off. Avoid saving important personal data (especially financial data) on your computer -- save it to a floppy disk and keep the disk secure. If your computer is stolen, taking these precautions will make it harder for the thief to access your information. Consider buying a program that will ask you to change your password regularly and will shut down your computer after a set time.

Use the latest protection software. Regularly update your protection software such as virus protection programs and encryption browser programs to protect your computer from viruses on disk or CD, sent to you via e-mail, or that you inadvertently download from the internet.

Use a personal firewall to secure your PC when online. A firewall will stop unauthorised access to your computer. Firewall programs are particularly important if you use a highspeed internet connection and leave your computer connected 24 hours a day. Many firewall programs are available free of charge on the internet.

Beware of unsolicited e-mails. Do not open files or click on links sent to you from people you do not know. These may contain viruses or other programs that can access information on your PC. Unsolicited e-mails are also used to promote scams: do not follow the advice of e-mails from sources you do not know, especially ones that ask you to give out personal information or induce you to part with your hard-earned cash. Criminals have been known to send messages in which they pretend to be representatives of legitimate organisations, such as banks or your ISP, in order to persuade people to disclose important personal information.

Do not follow up unsolicited e-mails. If you receive unsolicited emails, don’t reply to them requesting your name to be removed from the mailing list. This often simply confirms that your address works and that you exist. Simply delete the e-mail and remove it from your deleted file storage. You should also delete any attachments from other folders in which they are stored (ask your computer shop how to do this if you don’t know).

Only conduct transactions with secure websites. If you do business with companies on-line, ensure each site contains a statement about the company’s privacy policy with which you are comfortable. The policy should include details on how the company will secure, handle and use your personal information. It should also tell you how to contact the company and how to provide personal information without using the internet. A good indication of a secure site is the presence of the small padlock symbol. If a company with whom you intend doing on-line business does not have such a policy, or you do not agree with their information handling practices, consider looking elsewhere.

Wipe your hard drive. Before you dispose of, sell or trade in your old PC or laptop, be sure you have deleted all personal information properly. Deleting files using the keyboard delete key or mouse may not be enough. All files, including e-mails, may still be on your hard drive where they are easily retrieved. Use a program that ‘wipes’ your entire hard drive and makes all files unrecoverable.

Don’t use public computers to access your private information. Be wary when accessing your private information, particularly financial records, on public computers at libraries or internet cafés. Passwords, credit card and account numbers may be retrievable from the hard drive of the computer you have used and accessible to anyone with the ‘know how’.

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR IDENTITY HAS BEEN STOLEN

Your first point of contact when reporting any identity theft or identity fraud activity, should be your local State or Territory police. However, depending on how your identity has been used, you may need to contact a range of other organisations. This could include Australian, state and local government agencies, finance providers such as banks and credit unions, utility providers and retail stores.

You will also be required to provide written documentation to each of these organisations to support your case and to establish that you are not liable for any debts accumulated in your name.

Report to the Police. Like any other theft, incidents of identity theft should be immediately reported to the police even if only small sums are involved, as they can provide a profile on how the fraudster has operated. Assist the police by providing relevant documentation so they can record and follow up your case. Your credit report, account statements, debt collection letters and other evidence of fraudulent activity using your identity can greatly assist police. Ask for a copy of the police report -- sometimes banks or other financial institutions will ask you for a copy.

Contact the Credit Reporting Agency. Inform the credit reporting agency that you are a victim of identity theft. Ask that an alert be placed on your file that advises this. You have the right to include a written statement on your file. In your statement, ask that credit providers contact you (by telephone) before they open any new accounts for you or change any of your existing accounts. This way, additional fraudulent accounts being opened in your name should be avoided. The credit agency should send you a copy of your new credit file with these revisions. It should advise you of your right to have organisations who have accessed your file in the past three months informed of these changes. You should ask when this will happen. You should not be charged to access your file. If you are told you cannot access your own file because you refuse to pay the fee, seek advice from the Federal Privacy Commissioner. (www.privacy.gov.au)

Review your credit file carefully. You need to check your credit report carefully. Look for any accounts that you did not open or where any unauthorised changes have been made to your existing accounts. Ensure you can authenticate all ‘enquiries’ made into your credit history. Note the companies and organisations that have either made inquiries or opened accounts under your name that you did not authorise.

Close all accounts and correct your credit file. Contact the credit providers and businesses with whom any unauthorised accounts have been opened in your name, or who have made enquiries about your credit file. Remember this includes phone and other utility providers and department stores as well as financial institutions. Inform them, and the credit reporting agencies, that you have been a victim of identity theft. Ask credit providers to close the fraudulent accounts and to tell the relevant credit reporting agencies to remove references to the accounts and enquiries from your credit file. Usually, the credit provider will need to conduct an investigation to establish that you are not responsible for any debts that have been incurred in these accounts and you may have to supply additional documentation. Where there is a large number of credit providers involved, it may be impractical to deal with each one individually. In this case, contact the credit reporting agency first on how best to remove the incorrect entries. You may also want to close any legitimate accounts you hold so that these cannot be tampered with in the future. Replace them with new accounts, with new PINs and passwords.

Keep all documentation. Take notes that include dates, names, contact details and what was said. Follow up all conversations and requests in writing, and send these certified mail if you need to post them. Keep copies of all forms and correspondence. Keep all original supporting documents, such as the police report, letters, and your credit file - never put originals in the post. Ask all agencies that you speak to, including banks and other financial institutions, to write to you confirming the actions they have taken or will be taking and when they expect to complete such action. Ask them to provide details of all accounts in your name that have been closed and ensure that they acknowledge that you are not responsible for any further debts incurred. Keep a record of how much time you have spent on this and receipts for how much you have spent on copying, postage, etc, as you may be able to claim these costs back.

Clearing criminal records. Take action to remove any criminal records, arrest warrants or traffic infringements issued against your name as a result of the theft. The police will probably be your first point of contact. They may need to take your photograph and/or fingerprints to establish that your identity is different from that of the person charged. Ask that your name be removed from the offenders’ database and noted as an ‘alias’ only. Hire a lawyer if you need help to clear your name. Contact Legal Aid or the Law Society in your state or territory for more information.

Specific fraud offences. Contact the relevant government agencies if you think your identity may have been used for other fraudulent activities, including:
- passport fraud
- taxation fraud
- business fraud
- visa and immigration fraud
- welfare fraud
- bankruptcy fraud.

Source: ID Theft Prevention Kit