Everyone is talking about it—identity theft.
The numbers are scary. According to the FBI, somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000 Americans are victims of identity theft every year. If that’s not enough, the FBI also calls identity theft one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States.

And it’s not only the adults out there that should be cautious. According to the study “A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet,” published by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Economics and Statistics Administration, sixty-five percent of all ten to 13-year-olds and seventy-five percent of 14- to 17-year-olds have access and use the Internet. This widespread usage of the Internet by people of all ages opens us all up to the risk of identity theft by:

• Submitting personal information to fake online contests;
• Purchasing goods from fraudulent Web sites;
• Posting sensitive information on personal Web sites;
• Responding to email scams requesting share account information; or
• Sharing personal information with strangers in online chat rooms

So, what are we to do? Run for the hills? Cut off contact with the outside world? No, not very practical or fun!

It’s simply a matter of education. There are some very basic things we can do to protect our families and ourselves:

• Make sure that children are supervised when using the Internet.
• Teach children not to give out family information without talking to a parent first.
• Don’t respond to online contests that ask for your social security number, birth date, or age.
• Don’t respond to email requests for share account information. Respond by phone, or ask to be directed to a secure online form.
• When shopping online check for digital security certificates such as VeriSign.
• Be careful when creating personal Web sites. Refrain from posting personal information.
• Run a credit check on you and your family at least once a year.

At Washington State Employees’ Credit Union, we care about your security and work hard to provide helpful information on identity theft, prevention, and how to recover from it. To learn more, click on Identity Protection.