For ID safety, keep only what’s really necessary in your wallet | GUEST COMMENTARY
Published 2:20 pm Friday, October 17, 2014
What’s in YOUR wallet?
If you’re like many of us, you don’t really know: Grocery club cards, old receipts, credit cards, a gift card or two, maybe even your Social Security card. Now imagine your wallet is lost or stolen.
If you don’t know what’s in there, how are you going to report the loss to your creditors, the Social Security Administration, your bank, the police?
Here are some simple steps you can take to reduce your risk of identity theft and make your life easier if your wallet is stolen or lost.
• Go through your wallet and take out anything you haven’t used in the past few months. Your Social Security card, rarely used credit cards, gift cards that you’ve forgotten about. Put them in a safe place – a locked desk drawer or file cabinet. If you need them, you’ll know where to find them.
When was the last time someone asked you for your Social Security card anyway?
• Make a photocopy – front and back – of the items that remain in your wallet, and put the copies in a safe place. If you need to report something stolen, you’ll have your account numbers AND the phone numbers to call right at your fingertips.
• Keep your wallet in a safe place! At home, at work, while you’re out and about – consider where your wallet is physically located. Do you toss your wallet in a desk drawer at work or put your purse under your work station? If it’s a public place, your property is vulnerable – it only takes a minute while you’re in the restroom for someone to wander by and help themselves to your credit cards. Lock your purse or wallet in a desk drawer, and take the keys with you. When you’re out shopping and your wallet is in your purse, is your purse zipped shut and kept close to you (i.e. NOT sitting in your shopping cart!)?
It might be convenient to keep your wallet in your back pocket, but it’s vulnerable to pickpockets. Keep your wallet in your front pocket, and wrap a rubber band around it to make it more difficult to remove.
• If you have an enhanced ID or credit cards with RFID (“contactless cards”), they need special attention as they can be “cloned” without ever being taken out of your wallet. Special wallets, card sleeves, even aluminum foil can be used to protect your card accounts and I.D. from being cloned.
A stolen gift card is disappointing; a stolen Social Security card could be the beginning of a long and frustrating bout with identity theft. Be smart about what you keep in your wallet and carry with you, and help protect yourself against fraud and identity theft!
Terri Vickers is the Community Programs coordinator for the Renton Police Department.
