Ten Steps You Can Take To Prevent Theft of Your Identity

1. Never supply your credit card number or personal information to anyone over the telephone or internet unless you have initiate the contact and you trust the company involved.

2. Guard your social security number. It is the key to your credit report.

3. Do not print your social security number on your checks.

4. Do not mail bill payments and checks from home. Take them to the post office.

5. Shred any unused checks from closed or inactive accounts.

6. Shred old bank and credit card statements, or any unneeded document that contains your identifying information such as your social security number, account numbers, etc.

7. Shred "junk mail" credit card offers.

8. Remove your name from the marketing lists of the three credit reporting bureaus. This reduces the number of pre-approved credit offers that you receive.

9. Cancel unused or inactive credit card accounts.

10. Consider subscribing to a credit report monitoring service. This service will notify you whenever someone applies for credit in your name.