Identity Theft--Safeguard your Personal Information WATCH THAT CYBER INFO FREE CREDIT REPORT FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW IDENTITY THEFT INFO Identity Theft--Safeguard your Personal Information What is Identity Theft? Identity thief involves acquiring key pieces of someone’s identifying information, such as names, address, date of birth, social security number, and mother’s maiden name, in order to impersonate a person. This information enables the identity thief to commit numerous forms of fraud which include, but are not limited to taking over the victim’s financial accounts, opening new bank accounts, purchasing automobiles, applying for loans, credit cards, and social security benefits, renting apartments, and establishing services with utility and phone companies. The information contained in this guide provides the actions recommended by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the financial industry to help reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of identity theft. Preventative Actions: • Promptly remove mail from your mailbox after delivery. • Deposit outgoing mail in post office collection mailboxes or at your local post office. Do not leave in unsecured receptacles. • Never give personal information over the telephone, such as your social security number, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, credit card number, or bank PIN code, unless you initiated the phone call. Protect this information and release it only when absolutely necessary. • Shred preapproved credit applications, credit card receipts, bills, and other financial information you don’t want before discarding them in the trash or recycling bin. • Empty your wallet of extra credit cards and ID’s, or better yet, cancel the ones you don’t use and maintain a list of the ones you do. • Order your credit card report from the three credit bureaus once a year to check for fraudulent activity or other discrepancies. • Never leave receipts at bank machines, bank counters, trash receptacles, or unattended gasoline pumps. Keep track of all your paperwork. When you no longer need it, destroy it. • Memorize your social security number and all your passwords. Do not record them on any cards or on anything in your wallet or purse. • Sign all new credit cards upon receipt. • Save all credit card receipts and match them against your monthly statement. • Be conscious of normal receipt of routine financial statements. Contact sender if they are not received in the mail. • Notify your credit card companies and financial institutions in advance of any change of address or phone number. • Never loan your credit cards to anyone else. • Never put your credit card or any other financial account number on a postcard or on the outside envelope. • If you applied for a new credit card and it hasn’t arrived in a timely manner, call the bank or credit card company involved. • Report all lost or stolen credit cards immediately. • Closely monitor expiration dates on your credit cards. Contact the credit card issuer if replacement cards are not received prior to the expiration date. • Be aware of mail or telephone solicitations disguised as promotions offering instant prizes or awards designed solely to obtain your personal information or credit card numbers. Internet and On-Line Services • Use cautions when disclosing checking account numbers, credit card numbers, or other personal financial data at any Web site or on-line service, unless you receive a secured authentication key from your provider. • When you subscribe to an on-line subscriber, you may be asked to give credit card information. When you enter any interactive service site, beware of con artists who may ask you to “confirm” your enrollment service by disclosing passwords or the credit card account used to subscribe. Don’t give them out! Who to Contact for Copies of Your Credit Report • Equifax P.O. Box 105873 Atlanta, GA 30348-5873 • Experian Information Solutions P.O. Box 949 Allen, TX 75013-3742 Telephone: 1-888-397-3742 • TransUnion P.O. Box 390 Springfield, PA 19064-0390 Telephone: 1-800-916-8800 Actions Steps for Identity Theft Victims • Contact all creditors, by phone and in writing, to inform them of the problem. • Call your nearest U.S. Postal Inspection Service Office and your local police. • Contact the Federal Trade Commission to report the problem. • Call each of the three credit bureaus’ fraud units to report identity theft. Ask to have a "Fraud Alert/Victim Impact" statement placed in your credit file asking that creditors call you before opening any new accounts. • Alert your banks to flag your accounts and contact you to confirm any unusual activity. Request a change in PIN and a new password. • Keep a log of all your contacts and make copies of all documents. You may also wish to contact a privacy or consumer advocacy group regarding illegal activity. • Contact the Social Security Administration’s Fraud Home. • Contact the state office of the Department of Motor Vehicles to see if another license was issued in your name. If so, request a new license number and fill out the DMV’s complaint form to begin the fraud investigation process. Report Identity Theft to: • Equifax Credit Bureau, Fraud 1-800-525-6285 • Experian Information Solutions 1-888-397-3742 • TransUnion Credit Bureau, Fraud 1-800-680-7289 • Federal Trade Commission 1-877-IDTHEFT • Local Police Department • U.S. Postal Inspection Service (See federal government phone list or visit website at: http://www.usps.gov/postalinspectors • U.S. Postal Service (Local post office) (See federal government phone list) • Social Security Administration, Fraud Hotline 1-800-269-0271 Return to top WATCH THAT CYBER INFO "Montezuma State Bank does not collect customer e-mail addresses and does not attempt to contact customers for any reason via e-mail. Montezuma State Bank will never ask for your ID, password, PIN, or other confidential information. You should be suspicious if asked and never give out this information unless you are certain the site you are on is legitimate and secure." E-mail fraudsters have been imitating Web sites more and more frequently over recent months, often with success, unfortunately. Return to top FREE CREDIT REPORT You have the right to get a free copy of your credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months, from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies-Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. For instant access to your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228. Return to top FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW Facts about who is responsible: • Although the bank made funds available to you and therefore you thought that the check was “good,” you remain responsible if the check is counterfeit. • It does not make any difference whether you cash the check or deposit the check. • The bank whose name appears on a counterfeit check is not responsible. • Your bank’s funds availability policy only serves to let you know when the bank will generally make funds available to you when it accepts a check for deposit. Making the funds available does not change your fundamental responsibility for the item. What you can do to protect yourself • The best defense is to realize that if a deal is too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Receiving a large commission for cashing a cashier’s check just does not make any sense. Either it is likely a scam of the type already discussed or there may be a reason (a reason that you probably should be concerned about) why the person does not want to cash the item himself (such as money laundering). • Do not respond to unsolicited offers received over the Internet from people you do not know. Ask yourself why you are so lucky to have been selected. The answer is, you weren’t so lucky, or at least no luckier than the other 50,000 people that may have received the e-mail. The beauty of e-mail is that it is a cheap way of reaching a lot of people all at once. • Be particularly wary of e-mails apparently originating from overseas. Being overseas makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for law enforcement to identify and prosecute the perpetrator. • You should call the issuing bank to attempt to verify the validity of the cashier’s check before depositing the item, releasing any merchandise, transferring funds to a third party, or spending any of the proceeds. DO NOT call any telephone number that appears on the check since that may connect you to one of the perpetrators. Instead, use directory assistance or one of the Internet search functions to obtain the bank’s telephone number. Return to top IDENTITY THEFT INFO Here’s what is perhaps most important of all: Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. The alert means any company that checks your Credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by Phone to authorize new credit. Here are the numbers you always need to contact about if your wallet, etc. has been stolen: Equifax: 800-525-6285 Experian (formerly TRW): 888-397-3742 Trans Union: 800-680-7289 Social Security Administration (fraud line):800-269-0271 When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card Accounts, DO NOT put the complete number on the “for” line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it. If you have a P.O. Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a P.O. Box, use your work address. Never have your social security number printed on your checks. You can add it if it is necessary, but if you have it printed, anyone can get it. Place the contents of your wallet on a photo copy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first stop toward an investigation (if there ever is one). Return to top
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