This is identify theft awareness week and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office has some tips to protect yourself.
Identity theft can happen to anyone, so it’s important to safeguard your personal information. The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Head Susan Ellis, says that means not using public wi-fi to shop online or conduct banking, setting up separate user names and passwords for different accounts, and being careful with your mail. Even junk mail.
“You can get those credit card offers sent to you in the mail. You got to make sure you tear them up and shred them because people may be able to grab that and change the address and might be able to get an account open in your name.”
Ellis says you should also think about creating a two-step authenticator on apps like PayPal and Venmo and carefully review bank and credit card statements.
She also recommends checking your bank statements and credit report for any unusual activity.
“You can get one free report every year from the three major credit reporting agencies. And to do that you can go to annualcreditreport.com and you can sign up for it, and it’s free.”
Ellis says if you do become a victim of identify theft you can file a complaint online at: illinoisattorneygeneral.gov.
