Conveniently, after writing yesterday’s blog entry on Stolen Mail, I arrived home to find a friendly letter from our Postmaster General, John E. Potter. I’m sure many of you have received a similar letter.

Mr. Potter wrote to alert us all to the possibility of mail theft: “While I’m pleased that in a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) survey only 2% of all victims reported that the theft of their identity was connected to the mail, that’s still too many. We will keep working to make the mail even more secure and strive to reduce that percentage to zero.”

Glad to hear it! They also included a brochure with these helpful tips:

Detect ID Theft

Be alert to signs that require immediate attention:

• Bills that don’t show up as expected
• Unexpected credit card or account statements
• Denials of credit for no apparent reason
• Calls or letters about purchases that you didn’t make

Common Ways ID Theft Happens

1. Dumpster Diving. Thieves sort through trash looking for piece of paper with personal and/or financial information (use your shredder!!)

2. Skimming. Thieves steal credit/debit card numbers by using a special storage device when processing your card.

3. Phishing. Thieves pretend to be financial institutions or other companies via spam to your email accounts.

4. Changing Your Address. Thieves divert your billing statements to another location by completing a “change of address” form.

5. “Old-Fashioned” Stealing. Thieves steal wallets; mail; checks; tax information; personal records and so on.

• Thanks to USPS and FTC for this helpful information! Learn more on how to keep your identity safe…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.