Over the weekend, the Sun Sentinel had a huge article on identity theft; within the article, tips on how to avoid being the victim of ID theft, and what to do if your identity is stolen. Shredding financial documents, and credit 'solicits' is a great idea, and being stingy when it comes to giving up your Social is an even better idea. For example, there's really no reason a doctor's office needs your social security number. Every time I'm at a doctor's or dentist's office counter, I can look down and see another patient's personal info. Charts are just sitting there with all kinds of pertinent tidbits - patient's name, phone, address, and social. I wanted to see how much info I could cull and sure enough, I was able to write down a slew of information (I didn't do anything with it except show the desk how easy it was). I realize these offices are quite busy, but if someone was up to no good, it would be downright easy to get very personal information and steal another's identity. Unfortunately, no matter how careful you are, it could still happen to you. With that said, hoping we'll both never need them, here are some more sites:
www.myfloridalegal.com/identitytheft
www.indentitytheftassistance.org
www.identityfinder.com
Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft Hotline: 877-438-4338
Florida Attorney General's fraud Hotline: 866-966-7226
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