Since you can’t protect yourself 100% from identity theft, make sure that you Monitor the Signs! Heading into a new year people make many resolutions that they may or make not stick with, but protecting your identity should always be a top priority. Here are 3 effective tips to help discover and recover quickly if you become the victim of identity theft:

1. Create a Dossier – A dossier is a collection of documents that are stored in a fire-safe and that you regularly review and update. It is a paper summary of your identity as the outside world sees it (businesses, organizations and governments). It is made up of several key documents: your credit report, bank and credit card statements, Social Security statement, wallet photocopies and your password list. Virtually any of your vital documents could be included in your dossier as well (birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc.). A dossier is a place where you can quickly access a complete record of your vital information in case your identity is stolen and you will have the necessary account and phone numbers at hand to cancel credit cards, bank accounts and to file credit disputes. And you can do it quickly.

During your fraud training exercises, fostering an attitude of curiosity (or in the corporate world, a culture of curiosity) is the most powerful critical thinking skill in your arsenal of tools to protect sensitive information. Employees who can think critically and ask the right questions regarding data privacy make up the fabric that supports a Culture of Privacy. Interrogation is the art of questioning someone thoroughly and assertively to verify intentions, identities and facts.

Questions: Who’s in Control? Can I Verify? What are my Options? What are the Benefits?

When spies need information, they ask for it. They “socially engineer” or con their victims with a variety of tools.

The primary tool for evaluating risk once your reflexes have been triggered (Hogwash) is to interrogate the person or institution asking for your information. Interrogation is not meant to be about forceful or physical questioning. I define interrogation as clear, aggressive questioning used to establish whom you can trust, how far you can trust them, and with what information.

Sticking with the language of espionage, an Enemy is anyone or anything (including a computer, fax machine, email, letter, etc.) requesting your information, information of someone you know, or information about your organization. It is not designed to make you confrontational or warlike – that is taking the metaphor too far. Once you have established a trusted relationship, you are no longer in enemy territory.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

That is the best way to Think Like A Spy and be alert of Social Engineers that are trying to manipulate you.  With such a gloomy economy and many people without work, offers for fast cash and huge discounts become more and more attractive. Most of these Identity Theft cases use the technique of Social Engineering.

Social Engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information by playing on their human emotions. The term typically applies to deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim. These days most thieves can nab your identity over the phone, mail, email, and through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

While some schemes scam you into giving out social security numbers, bank account numbers or other confidential identity pieces, others are as simple as a pickpocket distracting you emotionally while another thief steals your wallet or purse. Here are what a few of the most widely used savvy cyber attacks look like:

• Phony charitable phishing scams, many of which are designed to look as if they come from real charities. Always enter in the exact URL for the Charity that you wish to donate to rather than clicking on a link.

The Privacy Reflex
When I am training corporate executives, managers and employees to detect fraud and social engineering (manipulative information-gathering techniques), I take them through what it feels like to be conned. In other words, I actually socially engineer them several times throughout the presentation so that they begin to reflexively sense when more fraud is coming. There is no substitute for experiencing this first hand.

The Trigger—Requests for Identity
Spies are trained to instantly react when anyone asks for information of any kind, whether it is theirs or someone else’s. The trigger, or what causes you to be on high alert, is actually very simple—it is the appearance of your identity in any form (wallet, credit card, tax form, passport, driver’s license, etc.). Anytime someone requests or has access to any of the names, numbers or attributes that make up your identity, or to the paper, plastic, digital or human data where your identity lives, the trigger should trip and sound an alarm in your head.

When your identity is being requested in any way, slow down and ask yourself: Is the risk of giving this piece of identity away in this specific situation worth the benefit?

The Department of Defense recently published an article about a speech I gave at the Joint Family Readiness Conference hosted by the Office of Military Community and Family Policy.

Military family members gathered here to learn how to prevent identity theft and I taught them to “think like a spy” in every aspect of protecting their personal information.

To think like a spy requires some specific mindsets and an instant reflex to those who are requesting their personal information. These reflexes are called triggers. I refer to the five triggers as the “Hogwash 5” because when a solicitor says them, your response should be “hogwash.” They are: “trust me,” a claim of protecting finances, asking for a “little bit” more information and things I call “bribe bias and fear bias.”

Preventing identity theft doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does take some effort. You are in control of this amazingly powerful asset called your identity, but you have to be willing to protect the value of that asset.

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John Sileo became America’s leading Identity Theft Speaker & Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC.  To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076

Tareq and Michaele Salahi — Washington socialites are not just known for their possible roles in the upcoming “The Real Housewives of Washington,” but for being seen arriving at the White House State Dinner. The problem was that they weren’t on the guest list, but managed to work their way inside what is supposed to be the most secure party.

The couple took to Facebook to document their party-crashing, and on Wednesday, Michaele Salahi’s Facebook page included photos of the couple at the dinner. The Salahis weren’t exposed until journalists caught sight of pictures showing the Salahis posing with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others. In the aftermath, the security breach looked more like a publicity stunt than a security threat.  The Secret Service admitted that they did not verify at each checkpoint that this couple was on the invitation list. In other words, they missed the second cardinal rule of security, Verify.

News stories like this bring Facebook Privacy into the spotlight once again. Facebook is becoming used more and more in legal cases and as evidence for both the  prosecution and the defense. Last month, Facebook was used to prove that a crime suspect was posting a status message from his father’s apartment in Harlem and not mugging a victim at gun-point. The charges were immediately dropped.

During a time when rules, laws and privacy settings are having trouble keeping up with technology, Facebook is having trouble keeping up with their ever growing population. Recently topping 350 million users, Facebook is scrambling to satisfy them all. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, posted an open letter on the website discussing changes to the Facebook privacy setting that they are implementing to help make their users data less public. Take a minute to read the full article and protect your profile.

Order your copy of the Facebook Safety Survival Guide to make sure you and your children are protected online.

John Sileo became America’s leading Identity Theft Speaker & Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC.  To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.

The reality is that unsecured, curbside mailboxes are prime targets for people who are intent on committing the crime of identity theft. Although I would suggest to stop using the mail to send and receive identity documents, this is not always possible. Therefore, here are alternative suggestions:

Lock Box. Install a locking mailbox that can be accessed only by you. These generally have a mail slot that allows the postal service to put mail into the box. Many newer neighborhoods already have some form of locking mailboxes.
P.O. Box. If a locking mailbox is not possible, get a P.O. box at your local post office and have sensitive documents sent there. It is a little bit more work, but gives you much more privacy.
In Person. When mailing sensitive documents, walk them into the post office and hand them to a postal worker. If it is after hours, drop the mail through an internal slot in the building. If there is no internal mailing slot, mail it the following day. This cuts out the most vulnerable stages of mailing.
UPS/FedEx. Have identity documents sent by UPS or FedEx and make sure that you require a signature for delivery. This makes the information harder to steal and you can track its location at anytime, which will alert you if the document isn’t delivered in a timely manner or is diverted somewhere else.
Send Checks to the Bank. Have sensitive documents (like new checks or credit cards) sent to your bank rather than to your home address. Pick them up there.
Watch for Cards. When new credit cards are coming through the mail, watch for them and call the credit card company if they don’t arrive in 7 to 10 days.
Quick Retrieval. If you are unable to install a locking mailbox and don’t have access to P.O. boxes, retrieve any mail within an hour or two of delivery. This lowers the exposure time of your mail.