Hi all, including visitors from England!
Today we will be tackling the issue of
advice, bad advice, and who you should take advice from.
Of course, I think you should take my advice, but I leave it up to you.
I came across the "advice" article (linked above) today and I thought I would share it. It's little wonder that the English are as clueless as Americans about how to protect themselves from Identity Theft. This article offers the same tips that Americans get - as if Identity Theft could actually be prevented.
Now don't get me wrong, because prevention is always better than cure (at least in every example I've ever been shown), but here's the quote from MyCallcredit director Kevin Green "Its incidence in the population is still small at less than 0.1 per cent,
but it’s something people can protect against very easily by taking a few sensible precautions. "
Here are the "sensible precautions" they recommend.
- Shred personal documents before disposing of them
- Cancel unused credit facilities [Accounts]
- Don’t give personal information to anyone, however legitimate they may seem, without first confirming who they are and why they want the information.
- Check your credit file regularly to see what information is held about you.
- Be vigilant and check your financial statements.
This sounds like the same shoddy advice being offered to Americans. I don't know how the system works in England, but you might as well know that in the U.S., there is nothing you can do to protect yourself 100% from Identity Theft, so you had better have a plan in place, just in case it does happen to you.
It's kind of like this... you don't plan for your kid's school to burn down, but when it does, you're sure glad that they took class time to show your kid where the fire exit is.
Putting a plan together, in case Identity Theft happens to you, is just like your own personal fire drill. When your financial house starts going up in smoke, you will know the quickest way out, and the quickest way back to normal life.
