One of the most overlooked under-secured resources that identity thieves have at their disposal is old electronic equipment that victims have discarded or recycled or donated without having properly scrubbed the hard drive of personal and highly sensitive information.  Thieves have bid on old computers on auctioning sites such as eBay and even scoured local garage sales or city dumps looking for the old computer you didn’t properly scrub before discarding.  Don’t make it any easier for identity thieves to make off with your information.  Take some easy steps toward securing that information before you upgrade to a new computer, cell phone, PDA, et cetera.  Use a wiping program to ensure that the data on your hard drive is cleared or, if you know how, replace that information with ones and zeros.  A simple deletion of the information is never good enough if that information is not written on top of with addition and innocuous information.  For the majority of us, however, that kind of computer know how escapes us, so in the case of the average American, a little elbow grease can replace computer know how.  Remove the hard drive and physically destroy it by drilling holes in multiple places.  Use a titanium bit.  Take out and destroy the memory cards from your cell phone before you discard it or simply use that same card in your new and upgraded phone.  Ask the manufacturer of the device for advice on how to properly dispose of your memory card or phone itself.  Finally, make sure you haven’t physically included any pertinent information on the hardware itself.  Check to make sure you have written your password on your computer or any documents you might be recycling with it.  Make sure you haven’t scribbled any important numbers or information on the inside of anything like the case of your phone or tucked anything inside of any piece of hardware you plan on donating, reselling, or throwing away.

Stolen wallets or purses are the leading source of information needed by thieves to steal your identity.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so always keep your wallet purse safe and close and closed and secured.  But if you find your wallet or purse missing, take the steps needed to get yourself back on track.  After calling financial institutions, you should file a police report in regards to your stolen wallet or purse.  You are the victim of a crime, after all, and you will need to have filed a police report as a step towards undoing any damage done by the perpetrator.  You will likely need to answer a series of questions, so be prepared to report information such as when you first noticed that your wallet went missing, where you think it might have been stolen, what else was in your wallet or purse, a description of the wallet or purse and if you have any idea who might have done it.  Once you have filed a police report, then call all three of the major credit reporting companies (Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union) and request that a fraud alert be put on your account.  This alert will force the hand of any creditors by requiring that they take extra steps in verifying your identity before approving any further credit.  There are many ways that the creditors can do this, but the most commonplace is to simply call a phone number that you will provide when activating a fraud alert.  You’ll then need to order a credit report for yourself and be keenly aware of what is in it and be able to verify that information.  Know your own credit history and be able to identify anything in the report that might be fraudulent.