With the alarming rise of the crime rate it is no surprise that over 30,000 identities are being stolen every day. These days identity theft is one of the most popular means of making quick money for sneaky crooks.

 Therefore, it is is essential that you protect your identity. Here are eight very simple privacy tips that will help you protect your identity and hard earned money.

1. The most basic step to prevent identity theft is to regularly monitor your credit card and bank statements.

  Many thieves begin by making small purchases so it advisable to always keep receipts from your purchases and review the expenses with your statements. Additionally, Credit Karma provides free credit scores and reports.

2. Do not reveal personal information to unreliable sources. If you get a call from someone purporting to be with a well known company inquiring after your personal information and account number then do not reveal it without verifying the legitimacy of the individual asking.

  Many legitimate companies never follow this procedure to get information. For example, you can ask for a phone number to call back and verify that phone number on the company's official website.

3. Governments have massively screwed up the whole identity process by issuing social security numbers which make identity theft much easier. Protect your social security number from getting in the hands of such thieves. For this you must never leave home with it unless there is a genuine need.

If you have to give your social security number in hospitals or while filling out a job application then care must be taken that the numbers are stored in safe place.

  You can ask what their privacy policies are to protect the number. While we do not recommend it; some people have inadvertently or accidentally juxtaposed a digit on the form.

4. Scan the front and back of all debit and credit cards which you then place in an encrypted TrueCrypt volume. You can upload the encrypted volume to a cloud based service like Dropbox so you can access it from anywhere. If your wallet or card(s) get stolen then this will make it easier to freeze or cancel the cards and start repairing the damage.

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This is a more in-depth training on how to use the wonderful combination of TrueCrypt and Dropbox.

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5. Choosing strong passwords is a very important step that needs to be taken if you want to prevent identity theft. Never choose a password or a security question that is easy to guess.

6. Secure all your devices, like computers or mobile phones, that you use to access your credit or debit cards, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, etc. with strong passwords.

7. You may consider an identity theft insurance policy.

8. Do not leave your mail lying around in a place where anyone can get access to it because it many often expose valuable information regarding your financial accounts. Once you have finished reading them pass them through a paper shredder.

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CONCLUSION

These are some very simple and basic safety privacy tips that are very useful when it comes to securing and controlling your privacy. An identity theft can cause your to lose some or all of your fortune and tens or hundreds of hours so it is wise to put some effort into securing your financial accounts by following the above mentioned simple privacy tips.

You can implement these privacy techniques to prevent identity theft. Keep these privacy tips in mind and remember: ALWAYS go above and beyond the norm to protect your personal information by implementing stealth privacy tactics from How To Vanish The Book or The Mini-Guide To Personal Privacy.

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