Recently, while on vacation, my rental car was broken into. My purse along with my cell phone, iPad, and GPS were stolen (they even stole my sneakers). I was less than 50 feet from the car, the doors on the car were locked, and we were away from the car for no longer than 5 or 10 minutes. The police surmise that the thieves watched us leave the car and moved in.
This as a tough lesson learned, a bigger pain than I ever imagined to get things straightened out and to protect myself from identity theft. Below are just a few things I learned.
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Make a police report immediately and get a copy of the report: Because my ID was stolen the police report was the only way I was able to get on the airplane to come home.
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If your phone or other electronic devices are company issued, contact IT immediately. They will have your phone suspended and your password changed so that thieves cannot access your company email.
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If you don’t already have your phone or other electronics pass coded. IT IS IMPERATIVE YOU DO THIS. This is your first line of defense. While thieves can get around this code it buys you and those helping you enough time to shut down and change passwords.
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Change ALL passwords - personal email (IT can only help with your work email), social media accounts, Apple ID, etc.
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Have a valid ID in a safe place. If you lose your driver’s license you may need a birth certificate, marriage certificate, and social security card in order to get a new one. Make sure that you NEVER carry these forms of ID, they should be kept in a secure location (oh, and you need to remember where you securely put them, because they are a pain to replace)
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Have the serial numbers for your electronics so that you can give it to the police. I.e. iPad and cell phones etc.
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If your iPad is 3g or 4g make sure that you know the cell number associated with this device so that you can cancel this service immediately as well.
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If you have an iPad and iPhone with ICloud, go to the mobileme website, login in using your apple ID, and you can request an email to let you know where the device is, the first time it is connected to the internet. Or you can request that the device is wiped the first time the device is connected to the internet.
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Call the company that you have identity theft protection with right away. I use the company that Bovie offers. If you don’t have protection, you might want to look into it (some credit card companies offer this service).
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If your identity theft protection company does not offer the service of canceling your credit cards or you forget you have this service (like I did, at first). Make sure you know what credit cards you have so that you can call the companies and cancel them. (You might want to copy front and back of your credit cards and keep this copy in a secure place with your birth certificate etc.)
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If your check book is stolen, let your bank know. They can put a “freeze” on this account. A freeze will allow deposits but not withdrawals. When you get home cancel these accounts and open new. I thought I could just stop payment on the checks, but it was recommended to cancel the account and open a new account because the thieves have your bank routing number and checking account number.
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The identity theft company I use contacted the three major credit reporting agency and put a security alert on my accounts. If you don’t have this service you can do the same thing by calling the credit reporting companies toll free number and requesting it.
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Don’t forget to call the companies that you might have memberships with as well, for instance health insurance companies, AAA, etc.
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When traveling take out all unnecessary credit card's membership cards etc. (it reduces the trouble you will have to go through)
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If you have a passport, make a copy of it and keep it in a secure location (with your birth certificate maybe). Also if you are traveling abroad have a copy of your passport and keep it in a separate location than your passport. If you lose your passport the copy will provide you with information you can give to the embassy and facilitate a smoother trip home.
I hope that none of you will ever encounter this, but in the event that you do... hopefully these tips help! Feel free to reach out or leave a comment below.
Janis Dezso
Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Bovie Medical Corporation
Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
