There are many ways criminals can gain access to our personal information and making us #IdentityTheft victims, often through sources over which we have no control. One source in particular, has both controllable and uncontrollable features. Mail!
Mail distribution provides criminals with several access points to our personal information. The first, and most obvious, is mail theft. Criminals have been known to pepper spray postal employees and steal letter box keys for the sole purpose of gaining access to a large amount of mail. That isn’t within our control; however, some of what goes into the mail is within our control. For example, if we order cheque blanks from our bank or the bank’s supplier, a criminal would love to find all those blanks in some stolen mail, We suggest you have those orders sent to the bank for you to pick up later. The bank is likely to have multiple orders in one shipment that would be easier to track.
Another example is the mailing of payments to suppliers, utility companies and various other service providers. One of our Associates has been involved with internet security since internet service began. He tells us that as long as we access the websites properly to pay those bills, it’s much safer to pay online than sending payments through the mail. (We will have a future posting to discuss the issue of cheque washing.) The key is that you access the supplier’s website – never click on a pop-up window, link or advertisement.
Criminals look for any kind of personal information in your mail. There are many examples that can readily be used by criminals – New licenses, credit card offers, new credit cards, credit card statements, property title documents, insurance documents, driver’s licenses and anything within the realm of criminal creativity!
Criminals have been known to break into super-mailboxes and they certainly patrol residential areas to steal mail from house mail boxes. Never leave your mail in the mailbox over night and be sure to have someone else pick up your mail if you are going to be away for any period of time. Where we do have some control over our personal information, let’s do whatever we can to reduce our risk of being #IdentityThefy victims.
Our “Identity Theft Issue “Control Data”, discussed the issue of limiting the amount of information we provide to those requesting it – another area where we have control over our personal information.
Please go to lloydkenney.wearelegalshield.com for more information on how you can protect you and your family through IDShield and LegalShield. Contact us at callcraft@shaw.ca.