With the Internet and electronic everything making identity theft so much easier now, do you know how to best protect yourself from having your identity stolen?  To raise your identity theft awareness, check out IDsafety.net, a website that quizzes you on your current preventative practices and gives you tips on how to better protect yourself from identity theft.

Here are some of the ways to protect yourself that are mentioned in the IDsafety.net quiz and tips:

• Destroy all financial documents before throwing them away.  Shredding sensitive documents with a Fellowes shredder or a similar machine is very important.  If you have a home-based or small business, it’s even more important — not only your information, but also your customers’, is at stake — so you might want to look into industrial paper shredders or heavy duty shredders.
• Sign up for e-statements whenever possible.  Electronic statements aren’t just friendly to the environment — they prevent thieves from being able to steal your mail en route to your mailbox (or, in some cases, right out of your mailbox).
• Keep financial records where they can’t be accessed by others.  Unlocked desk drawers or, God forbid, right out in the open make it too easy for a burglar to get this information.
• Change your online account passwords regularly.  Computers can be hacked and passwords can be stolen, so use different passwords for different accounts, and change them regularly.

Your virtual identity is worth a lot more than it used to be, which creates a catch 22 — you need it more than you ever did before, but at the same time it’s also more tempting to thieves than ever before.  Raising your identity theft awareness enables you to tighten up your own personal security and protect yourself from identity theft as best as possible!

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