SAN FRANCISCO — Criminals stole personal information from tens of millions of Americans in data breaches this past year. Of those affected, one in three may become victims of identity theft, according to research firm Javelin. But there are steps you can take to protect yourself against the financial, legal and emotional impact of identity theft — and most of them are free:
AS A RULE:
• Closely guard your Social Security numbers — and those of your children — as well as credit and debit card information and account passwords.
• Shred unneeded financial records and credit offers.
DETECTIVE WORK:
• Examine credit card bills for irregularities each month.
• Get a free credit report once a year from at least one of the major reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion), and review it for unauthorized accounts. Ignore services that charge a fee for credit reports. You can order them without charge at www.annualcreditreport.com. If you order from each agency once a year, you could effectively check your history every four months.
DO PAID SERVICES WORK?
• Some experts say there’s not much to be gained from a paid credit monitoring service. But if a business sends you a notice of a data breach, it can’t hurt to sign up for any monitoring they offer for free. These services will tell you if a new account is opened in your name, but they won’t prevent it, and many don’t check for things like bogus cellphone accounts or fraudulent applications for government benefits. Some do offer limited insurance or help from a staffer trained to work with credit issuers and reporting agencies.