By Gary Lloyd
The Trussville Police Department last week offered some tips on its Facebook page to protect your identity.
Tips for protecting identity theft include not signing the back of your credit cards, but instead putting “Photo ID Required.” Although merchants and their employees are still hit-and-miss on actually checking the ID, more of them are paying attention.
When ordering checks, don’t list a telephone number. You can always write it on the check at the time of the transaction. The police department encourages people to be aware of which credit cards they carry that have embedded RFID chips because the information on them can be read surreptitiously by someone near you using a handheld scanner.
To keep records, place the contents of your wallet or purse on a photocopier and make copies of both sides of each license and credit card. Then, keep those copies in a secure place so that if your cards are ever lost or stolen, you can report the card numbers to your bank and police.
Trussville police also encourage people to know their international mobile equipment identity number, accessed by pressing *#06# on the cell phone’s keypad. This will display a 15-digit number that you should make a record of in case your phone can be identified if it’s ever lost or stolen.
Your cell phone provider can block others from using the phone on their network, which could also help protect you against expensive 1-900 phone calls and other mischief.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.