What is Identity Theft? Identity theft involves acquiring pieces
of someone’s identifying information, name, address, date of birth,
social security number including financial information and now your
medical benefits. While most identity theft cases involve a monetary
loss to the victim, some folks are seeing other areas of their lives
being affected as well. The damage done by the loss of confidential
information can be difficult to repair. How do you protect your
business and its employees from this crime?
What information do you have lying around your office, register
area or work stations that might lead to identity theft for your
business, employees or customers? Make sure that all negotiable
items and payments, contracts received for services, employee
belongings and personal information are locked up at all times.
Your employees should always secure personal belongings such as
purses and wallets in areas out of the publics view, (preferably in
a locked compartment if available such as a locker or file cabinet
or desk drawer). All it takes is a minor distraction to pull the
employee away from their work area and things can and do disappear.
What information do you need to do business? To provide good
customer service? To allow your employees to get the job done? All
non-essential paperwork and materials should be secured away from
the work area until needed.
Here are some other preventive actions:
*Promptly remove mail from mailboxes after delivery.
*Deposit outgoing mail in post office facilities, don’t leave it
unsecured.
*Shred documents containing personal or financial information
when it is no longer useful. NEVER throw this information in a trash
container or a recycle bin.
*Empty your wallet, purses and planners of extra credit cards,
Ids and any other personal information not normally needed.
* Order a credit report from the three credit bureaus once a year
to check for fraudulent activity or other discrepancies. Medical
benefit claims should be reviewed annually for any discrepancies.
*Sign all new credit cards upon receipt. This is a security
measure put in place to protect your identity. Remember checking the
signatures to ids on your customer’s credit card purchase can help
prevent a loss to your business.
For more information log on to:
- Federal Trade Commission at
www.ftc.gov
