Identity Theft Protection Tips from the Postmaster General

Posted by: Lisa N. | Feb 29,2008

More and more often, identity theft protection tips from the post office arrive in the mail. The post office gets something of a bad rap when it comes to identity theft. Many people still think that the most common cause of identity fraud is stolen mail. According to Postmaster General John E. Potter, we couldn’t be more wrong.

 

I received a letter and a brochure from the Postmaster General and the Federal Trade Commission this week detailing identity theft protection tips. In the letter, Potter points out that a recent Federal Trade Commission survey found only 2% of all identity fraud victims claimed that mail theft was the culprit. That’s a figure that took me by surprise. Presumably because people still think that the post office is responsible, and because they want to mitigate crimes related to mail theft, the post office also sent out a Federal Trade Commission-sponsored brochure outlining a number of helpful identity theft protection tips.

 

The new “Deter – Detect – Defend Avoid ID Theft” brochure includes more than a dozen tips to help prevent identity fraud. Many of the identity theft protection tips have already been discussed on Experts on Credit. However, a couple of them caught my eye:

 

Denials of credit for no apparent reason and calls or letters about purchases you didn’t make can both be signs of identity theft. In addition, this is the first piece of mail I’ve ever received that mentioned filing a Federal Trade Commission complaint about identity fraud in addition to filing a police report. And, I was pleased to see that the brochure discusses all the latest identity fraud trends, including dumpster diving and phishing. In addition to internet safety, the brochure also explains fraud alerts and other new ways you can protect yourself from identity theft.

 

All in all, I’ll give the Federal Trade Commission and the Postmaster General an A+ for providing us with up to the minute identity theft protection tips. Get more information about identity fraud safety in the Credit Bloopers blog. 

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