Your identity and personal information are valuable assets. Keep them secure.
What do you do when you're standing at the till entering your secret 4-digit PIN? Do you try and hide the keypad from anyone standing behind you by shielding it with your other hand? No, I don't either, although I do try and position my body so people can't easily see the numbers I'm punching in.
Since the introduction of Chip & PIN, card fraud in shops and supermarkets has dropped significantly with fraud losses down by 43% from £73.2 million to £42.1 million.
However, card-not-present fraud where transactions are made via the Internet, phone and mail order has increased, albeit at a much slower rate than before. In the run-up to Christmas, protecting your personal information is paramount and that means shredding or destroying any receipts or documents that contain private financial details and not writing down passwords, login details or PIN numbers. You'd be amazed at the information that fraudsters can dig out of your dustbin!
If you're shopping online, you should ensure that your computer has up-to-date anti-virus software and a firewall installed. And make sure when accessing Internet banking or shopping sites, that you always type the address into your web browser rather than going to a website from a link in an email
The government has a website - www.identity-theft.org.uk - which explains how to protect yourself from ID fraud and what to do if it happens to you. But if you want to learn more and have your specific questions answered, you can join Mark Bowerman and Richard Martin from APACS live online at www.webchats.tv on Wednesday 15th November at 13:00.
One important bit of advice is to check your credit file regularly - at least once a year - to make sure that nothing untoward is taking place. (You can do this via the Motley Fool as we have teamed up with Experian, one of the two big players in the credit reference market and they're offering a free 30-day trial of CreditExpert). In particular, look for entries from organisations you don't usually deal with as someone else may have borrowed money in your name.