Notes from Charlotte County, Florida

Federal Trade Commission Tips to Minimize Identity Theft:

• Limit the number of credit cards you carry and actively use one or two.

• Avoid sharing your SSN unless it is required to conduct a legitimate transaction.

• Install a firewall on your home computer to prevent hackers from obtaining personal and financial data from your hard drive.

• Conduct business only on Web sites that use secure sockets layer (SSL) to transfer information. Secure sites have the prefix “https” and will encrypt all information between your computer and the site.

• Remove your name from the marketing lists of the credit reporting bureaus at 1-888-5OPTOUT or www.optoutprescreen.com.

• Mail your bills from inside the post office rather than from your home mail box.

• Use a “confetti” shredder for financial statements, credit card solicitations, and expired cards.

• Order your free credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com or1-877-322-8228. Stagger your requests from the three credit bureaus and obtain one report every four months to monitor your information on anongoing basis.