10 ways to stay ahead of identity fraudsters.......

**shaheen** · by **shaheen** on Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:46 pm

Using other people's stolen personal details to commit scams is one of the fastest growing crimes.

So it makes sense to get wise to their dirty tactics and ensure your details - and your finances - remain safely out of their grasp.

With this year's National Identity Fraud Prevention Week kicking off today, we provide you with 10 top tactics for staying ahead of the fraudsters

1. Keep your passwords secret
If you're careless with your passwords and PINs, you are leaving yourself vulnerable to attack. So don't write them down, never give them to other people and avoid obvious words such as your pet's or children's names or your birthday.

2. Keep switching
Make it even more difficult for would-be cyber thieves by constantly changing your passwords. Think about it this way: the longer a password stays the same, the longer someone has to figure it out.

3. Don't respond to dodgy e-mails and texts
Never reply to messages from people you don't know or anything that looks suspicious, even if it seems to have come from a friend. Just delete them straight away.

The same goes for suspicious e-mails that appear to come from your bank or card company and ask you to input your personal details. Genuine companies never ask you to do this so don't fall for the scam.

Give your bank a quick call if you want confirmation, but obviously don't use any number provided in said e-mail.

4. Check your credit report regularly
This is the personal history of your credit accounts, such as cards and loans, so by keeping an eye on it you'll see immediately if there are any suspicious entries and be able to contact the relevant lender to set things straight.

5. Don't be a Twit(ter)
Take care that you don't inadvertently give fraudsters a helping hand by revealing personal details about yourself on social networking sites. Use the security options so you only share private information, such as your name, address, date of birth and holiday dates, with close friends.

6. Register to vote
It might not seem important but putting your name on the electoral roll at your current address is a simple way of protecting yourself against a criminal misusing your details.

7. Go through your statements
Always make time to check through your bank, card, mobile phone and other financial statements for irregularities. The sooner you come across any suspicious transactions, the sooner you'll be able to sort them out.

8. Shred don't bin
Just because you think something is rubbish it doesn't mean it won't be useful to someone else, so make sure you dispose of old bank statements and other private documents carefully, preferably by shredding them.

9. Update your security software
As a nation, we Brits are rather bad at computer security. A recent survey found that at least a third of us leave ourselves open to cyber crime by failing to update our anti-virus programmes and firewalls. Make sure you have the latest versions installed and update regularly.

10. Watch out for shoulder surfers
When you are using your card at an ATM or some other public place, beware of people watching you - they could be memorising your PIN or even taking a sneaky photo with a phone.