Be Extra Careful About Identity Theft During a Move

Identity theft rates are on the rise, so you should always be vigilant of the threat, and that means taking the necessary steps to protect yourself. As author Adam Levin points out, you should be especially careful to secure your personal information during a big move.

Adam Levin is the author of Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves. He explains that it’s important to be extra mindful about personal information during a move since there’s typically a lot of paperwork and mail involved.

Always make sure the federal agencies that send mail to you know where you live. A short list of places you will want to inform of any changes would include the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Next, you will want to make sure you forward your mail from your old address, but also be proactive and directly contact people and organizations that regularly send you mail. Letter carriers are not perfect, and you get substitutes on routes that can cause forwards to be ignored. Not only that, but the forwarding period generally ends after a year (it’s typically only good for 60 days on periodicals), and then your replacement in the old homestead will be getting your mail, or it will be left in a public space if you live in an apartment building.

Again, it’s important to keep your info secure all the time, but this is a useful reminder to make sure you notify all banks, credit card companies, bill providers, etc. of your address change and keep an eye on any regular mail. Over at Credit.com, Levin lists some common entities that should be notified.