Tips to Help Safeguard Your Identity

• Never leave your purse or wallet unattended (even for a short period of time) or in open view in your car, even when locked.
• Destroy all checks immediately when you close a checking account. Destroy or keep in a secure place, any courtesy checks that your bank or credit card company may mail you.
• Reconcile your check and credit card statements in a timely fashion and challenge any purchases you did not make.
• Limit the number of credit cards you have, and cancel any inactive accounts.
• Never give any credit card, bank or social security number information to anyone over the telephone.
• Safeguard your credit and debit and ATM card receipts and shred them before disposing of them.
• Scrutinize your utility, telephone, and subscription statements to make sure the charges are yours.
• Memorize your passwords and personal identification (PIN) numbers. Keep your PIN numbers somewhere that only you know about, anywhere but with your credit cards.
• Keep (in a secure place) a photocopy of all credit and identification cards you carry with you, including front and back, so that you can quickly call the issuers to inform them about missing or stolen cards.

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