How do we avoid identity theft?

A. Most important

1. Regularly review all financial transactions and Investigate any anomalies

2. Lock your screen when you're not there

3. Choose a good strong password (ideally generated) for all accounts

4. Be very suspicious of email, phone calls, text messages, attachments since it's easy to send a message that appears to be from someone you trust.

5. If messages require you to act, make sure you use contact information from a website you trust, not from the message

6. Never trust someone trying to sell you something

B. Useful

1. Keep your email inbox clean by reporting appropriate emails as spam

   1. I have a great system for keeping my inbox clean if you're interested

2. Use google to review compromised passwords and change them

3. Periodically review credit reports for suspicious events

C. I'm not sure how useful this is

1. Shredding documents with personal information

2. Log out of accounts after using them

Notes

1. I used to have and use a shredder, but stopped years ago --Bryan

2. I lock my screen instead of logging out for private computers. For public computers I log out. --Bryan

3. I like using Mint to review all transactions. I tag them as "reviewed" after reviewing them so I can easily look for anything that hasn't been reviewed yet. --Bryan

4. I more often use google's suggested password now since it will remember it for me and there's generally an easy way to recover it. --Bryan

5. Note that it's difficult to spot fraudulent messages, but there are some red flags

   1. It's from an unusual internet domain

   2. Bad grammar

   3. Expresses a sense of urgency