ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Free Identity Theft Protection

Updated on January 5, 2012

Identity Theft Prevention For Free

Identity theft is a growing problem around the world. In America, various crime statistics list the losses due to identity theft in the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars. Fortunately, some simple tricks can help protect your identity for free.

While identity theft technically means that someone copies your whole identity, impersonating you with phony driver's licenses and Social Security cards, someone stealing just one credit card number or opening just one account in your name can be devastating to your credit. Fixing the error can take hundreds of hours and can even cost thousands of dollars depending upon the damage done. The best solution to identity theft and credit card theft is prevention.

Unfortunately, the credit card companies and banks aren't very interested in the prevention of identity theft. While theft and fraud cost them millions of dollars each year, they make far more money off of easy access to credit than they lose. That means you are responsible for protecting your identity.

The fastest and easiest way to help prevent identity theft is a paper shredder. Best of all, once you buy the shredder, helping protect your identity is free. That is smart financial advice that anyone can use.

Free Credit Card Fraud Protection

Use Paper Shredder to Stop Identity Thieves

While there are many ways for identity thieves to get your personal information, like all criminals and scammers, they like easy targets. If you happen to get caught up in a sophisticated identity theft ring's plan, there may not be much you can do. However, those are less common that run of the mill identity theft.

One of the easiest ways to get someone's private personal information is to take a few seconds to go through their trash. Whether the trash cans are convienently left out by the curb, or whether several people collect their personal info in the same dumpster, grabbing a copy of a cable bill gives the thief plenty of information. Even better is if the thief can grab a credit card application, helpfully pre-filled out by the bank that sent it to you. And, if you recycle, well, that just means that they don't even have to get their hands dirty.

With your name, address, and even an account number as a reference, your phone number is just a click away on the Internet, and your Social Security number is easy enough to get from a number of places.

Your only defense is to keep them from getting any of this information in the first place. Using a paper shredder to destroy anything with your name and address on it makes your garbage virtually worthless to identity thieves who will just move on to an easier target most of the time.

Don't worry about buying a fancy shredder with tons of features. While a cross-cut shredder does provide more secure destruction, almost no one is going to bother putting the pieces back together. If the thieves were willing to work that hard, there are better ways to make money.

Don't get suckered into buying special oil for your paper shredder either. Most household shredders say right in the instructions that common vegetable oil is all you need.

Start protecting your identity right away.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)