Former Master Thief Answers Questions About Personal Security by Frank Abagnale (NAPSA)—Q. How canI pro- tect myself against the problems associated with Identity Theft? A. Protect your personal information by not giving anyone your Social Security number unless you are sure they will safeguard it. Shred credit card offers and financial documents that you no longer need for tax purposes. Don’t carry extra checks in your wallet or purse. Remember, yourfirst Abagnale —————_ line of defense is checking your credit report. A service like PrivacyGuard will send you copies of your credit history. You should check it twice a year. PrivacyGuard also allows you to monitor your credit file by alerting you to inquiries or changes in your credit record with one of the major credit reporting agencies. This enables you to quickly see if anyone is applying for credit in your name. Armed with this infor- mation, you can quickly react and limit the damage if someone steals your identity. For more on this, visit www.privacyguard.com. Q.I go online a lot. What should I do to protect my computer and myself? A. For full protection you need both virus protection and firewall software plus insurance coverage to pay for repair of any damage to your computer. Digital Protection- Plus, at www.digitalprotection plus.com, provides you with both McAfee.com Virus Scan Online protection and McAfee.com Personal Firewall against computer hackers and identity thieves as CHECK YOUR CREDIT REPORT—It will enable you to seeif someoneis applying for credit in your name. well as up to $10,000 in ID Theft Insurance. Q. Recovering from identity theft can take a lot of time and cost hundreds of dollars. Is there a service that will help me recover and protect me if I become an identity theft victim? A. Yes. One service that will both guide you through the process of recovering from this crime and protect you from loss if you become an identity fraud victim is called IdentitySecure (1866-263-8258). The company will also help a member cancel and replace their cards if the member’s credit or ATM cards are lost or stolen. Frank Abagnale is a former master thief whose early life was the basis for the movie “Catch Me If You Can.” He now assists companies and consumers in preventing fraud. To have your questions considered for this column, please send it to askfrank@privacy.trilegiant.com. A three-month trial membership in PrivacyGuard, Digital ProtectionPlus or IdentitySecure can be enjoyed for only $1. Thetrial membership can be canceled at any time during the three-month period by calling toll free and the member will owe nothing further. Unless the membercalls to cancel, the membership will be extended automatically for an entire year at the $89.99 annualfee for PrivacyGuard or the $99.99 annual fee for IdentitySecure or Digital ProtectionPlus. The membership will be automatically renewed annually upon expiration at the then-current annual fee, billed to a credit card account, without the member having to do anything further. Additionally, members maycall toll free to cancel at any time andreceive a pro-rata refund.
