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Great tips and well written to boot.1. As mentioned, freeze your credit reports with the Big 3 credit bureaus.
2. Use strong passwords for EVERYTHING you do on the Internet. Passwords like "Yjx72*R3k?uf!T" are ideal and can be easily managed with a password manager on mobile and desktop platforms.
3.Use a free credit monitoring app like Credit Karma. Every week it takes me all of 2 minutes to log into Credit Karma to ensure there are no "surprises" with my credit. And over the years, Credit Karma has become more and more useful with the data they provide. (It's safe, too. They use bank-level encryption.)
4.Check your FICO credit score once per month. If you have a credit card, many of those will provide this for free these days. If your credit score takes an unexpected plunge, that could very well mean you have a problem.
5.While subscription credit monitoring services/identity theft monitoring services are not completely useless, most of the services and info they provide can be obtained for free elsewhere. And if you've locked your credit with the bureaus it should - theoretically anyway - be very difficult for another person to obtain credit in your name. (A friend of mine was recently notified by the SBA that someone tried to take out a pandemic small business loan in her name. That effort was blocked only because her credit file had been frozen at the Big 3 bureaus.)
6. Practice good "identity hygiene". Shred all paperwork with personally identifiable information. Never give out your SS# or other valuable info over the phone unless you were the person who initiated the call (and providing that info passes the "sniff test"). When you get emails, text messages or phone calls saying "There's a problem with your XXXX account", assume it's a phishing attempt...because it probably is. Basically, you need to exercise a great deal of common sense. Many people don't.
7. Set up "alerts" on all credit cards. If someone charges so much as 1 cent on my credit cards, I immediately get a text message telling me. A few years ago someone bought $300 worth of shoes at the Lloyd Center Footlocker using my Discover Card number. I was notified immediately and called that Footlocker within 60 seconds to tell them "That was a fraudulent transaction." They detained the thief (a young woman) and she was arrested. Apparently she was with other people who took off when they quickly figured out something was up. (After calling Footlocker I also immediately deactivated the card on the Discover app.) I was lucky in that I sprung into action quickly, and the manager at this Footlocker was himself very willing to help. Not all businesses will be so cooperative.
8. No matter what you do, remain vigilant. No one is ever 100% safe from identity theft. If you think you may have an issue get on top of it immediately. Criminals can do a great amount of damage in a very short amount of time. Also, if you do encounter a problem check your homeowners or renters insurance policy. Mine provides identity theft insurance & help. I didn't ask for it and it doesn't cost extra. It's just a newer benefit my policy provides.