No matter how hard you try to hide, we can find you. Even if you don’t have a listed phone number. Even if you use a post office box.
Your home number? We got it from your voter registration form. It’s public information.
So is your birth record, marriage certificate, tax assessment data, divorce record and all kinds of other stuff.
We live in an age where millions of pieces of personal information are stored on electronic databases that individuals can easily search.
For journalists, that information gives insight into the world of politicians, celebrities and other people in the news. But for information thieves, it’s a way to make money selling your ID or getting credit under your name.
No one’s information is safe. Not even important people.
“I have the Social Security numbers of Jeb Bush, Colin Powell and Porter Goss – the director of the CIA,” Robert Siciliano, a personal security expert based in Boston, bragged to me the other day.
His point is there’s no way to keep others from accessing your personal information. But smart people should learn to monitor their accounts and protect their passwords and financial information to lessen the chance that someone will rip them off.
Savvy information thieves know how to cull Social Security information and capture credit card data using spyware and other devices, by searching public records or even by going through your trash. Most of it is legal. One website offers Social Security information for $35 a pop.
In fact, you are more likely to have your identity stolen than to be burglarized, according to a study released in January by the Better Business Bureau.
Call me an alarmist, but I’d rather be safe.
In the past, friends called it overkill when they saw me putting one hand over the keyboard at an automated teller machine as I typed in my pass code.
I’m vindicated by the recent proliferation of ATM “card skimming” – in which a device placed in an ATM records the information from your card’s magnetic strip and a tiny wireless camera captures your personal identification number.
(Thieves in nearby trucks typically wait till they collect info from several cards, then they create duplicate cards, go to other ATMs, type in your password, and – ding! ding! ding! – collect a jackpot.)
So what should you do?
Siciliano, author of “The Safety Minute,” offers these tips:
Reconcile your credit card statements immediately. If there are unauthorized charges, call your bank. Check your checking and savings accounts online regularly.
Check your credit history often. You can do it for free four times a year through any of the credit rating agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You can also get it free annually at annualcreditreport.com.
My tips: Ask for a random ID number for your driver’s license; never use your Social Security number. Shred all your financial documents instead of putting them in the trash.
Tips from other sources: Call 888-5-OPTOUT to get off mailing lists for pre-approved credit cards, which could be stolen or lost in the mail. Get bills online, not through the mail. Make sure your computer is firewall-protected, and that you have a computer program that detects spyware.
And then there’s my paranoia move: Cover the keyboard when you type in your ATM password.
Cindy Rodríguez’s column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays in Scene. Contact her at 303-820-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com.
