Things Even the Laziest Person Should Do to Protect Their Identity

Identity theft seems to be one of humanity's greatest fears. Just this week, Anderson Live profiled a woman who had her entire identity stolen to such an extent that the culprit was living life under her identity, having children and buying property all under the real person's name. When the thief was finally exposed, the victim had to go all the way back to high school year book photos, just to prove that she really was the person in question.

Steve Weisman knows how she feels. The Bentley University law professor was a victim of identity theft himself when his gym locker was broken into in 2001. But instead of getting mad, he got even and became one of the world's foremost experts on this particular crime. To that end, he's written a new book called 50 Ways to Protect Your Identity in a Digital Age.

But people are busy and 50 seems like a big number to remember. Not to mention how we are susceptible to identity theft almost everywhere we go and practically everywhere we do business. There are the obvious ones like the ATM and our home computer, but then there's the possibility of our bank or somewhere else we do financial business with getting hacked. So, in short, no one is truly safe from identity theft and the thought of that can be so cripplingly overwhelming to some people that your personal security may not seem worth it. Plus, there's a lot to remember and a lot to guard and people are just generally lazy, technologically inept or just overwhelmed.

So, we asked Weisman the last things on earth any person should do to protect their identity and be at least minimally effective. If you remember nothing, but still don't want your identity stolen, at least hold on to the following advice:




Put a Freeze on Your Credit -- For a small fee of $20 (and sometimes for free), you can ensure that no one but you has access to your credit line or credit report. You can put a password on your file that allows you to lift the freeze when you give it to the credit bureau in question. It can also be lifted online or through telephone banking with your authorization. Obviously, the benefits of a credit freeze go up, as you age because often younger people need to be able to readily access their credit report when applying for loans, credit cards or mortgages, while older folks have all the credit that they need. It can be viewed as an annoying and extreme step, but it's often cheaper than credit monitoring services, which can cost you up to $120 a month. If you don't freeze your credit, at least remember to apply for your free credit report once a year. "Once an identity thief steals your critical information, they can access your credit report to approve large purchases and if you have it locked with a PIN number on the account, then they can't make those large purchases," says Weisman.

Don't Use a Debit Card for Purchases -- If you insist on not using cash to buy things, make sure you use credit cards instead of debit cards. This is because a credit card offers greater protection against fraud than a debit card can. Also, it's important to limit your withdrawals to ATMs of your bank. Not only can you avoid the exorbitant and unnecessary fees, but you also avoid a lot of the skimmers and PIN number keypad pinhole cameras that can be secretly placed on those private ATM machines. In a way, using cash also helps you budget better because it takes the instant and unthinking process out of spending money. " Credit cards have a limit to your liability of $50, but with debit cards you can lose your entire bank account," reiterates Weisman.

RELATED: 10 Things You Should Never Keep in Your Wallet

Don't Carry Your Social Insurance Number Around in Your Wallet -- Even the Canadian Government recommends you leave your SIN safely stowed at home in a locked filing cabinet or safety deposit box and Steve Weisman agrees. "Once, I was at a doctor's office and they asked for my social security number and I wouldn't give it to them. It's just too risky because if an enterprising hacker and identity thief gets a hold of it, they have access to a holy grail that unlocks all your personal information." He instead suggests offering an alternate piece of I.D., such as a driver's license. The Canadian Government recommends that you don't present your SIN card unless you're legally required to and never present it over the phone unless you know who you are speaking with for sure. Never ever write it in an e-mail either.

Shred Important Documents that You No Longer Need -- "Identity theft can be high-tech, low-tech or no-tech and no-tech is just going through your trash and finding various bills that you may throw out," says Weisman. This includes old credit and debit cards and any old financial documentation that carries personal information.The larger your company, the more an industrial shredder will cost you. According to IntelliiShred, shredding with your own industrial shredder costs the average company $119.25 per month. It's in those cases that you might think about turning to an industrial shredding service, but most of us can get by with a regular cross-shredder from Staples. It has to be a cross-shredder, so the documents can't be easily put back together by potential thieves.

Make Sure your Computer, Smartphone or Other Digital Device has a Complex Password and Updating Security Software -- If you want to protect your identity, you need a complex password on all your digital devices, but these are often very hard to remember for people. Weisman has a great trick to solve that problem, he suggests using a combination of words and symbols to create a short and memorable, but seemingly random phrase. For example, "4Score&7yearsago@myhouse" is a long phrase that one can still remember and it has many symbols to trip hackers up. Weisman will also say that when prompted by a security question, make sure the answer has nothing to do with the question and it's information that can't be found through a simple Google search on you and isn't shared on your Facebook or other social media profile. There are plenty of good security patches out there for holes in operating systems, but many people don't download them, so make sure you can save yourself some time and get security software that updates automatically. Don't think Apple products are still being ignored by hackers, as they were in the past. The popularity of Apple technology nowadays, makes them a new target for spyware, botnets and other malicious software.

Protection Made Simple...

Steve Weisman can confirm that if you follow the simple steps, even the laziest, most technophobic individual can still protect their identity and make sure they will reduce the chances of being taken advantage of like Weisman was.