Whether you are a student or someone lucky enough to be taking time off for a well-deserved Spring Break, there are things you should be doing before hitting the road to protect your identity. Many people feel a rush of excitement when thinking about vacations and may overlook some simple steps that can protect your identity while you are away.

With popular smartphones, like the iPhone, now available on multiple networks, more people are finding themselves owning them. In fact, some people, like me, own multiple smartphones. I carry one for work and one for personal use. Both of my phones are password protected, have varying forms of encryption, and I am very careful when and where I use them. However, my friend uses her smartphone everywhere and for everything. Banking, business, and family information is housed on her mobile device. I was horrified to learn that she isn’t taking any steps to protect her phone.

In the last post, we discussed the profile of an identity theft victim. In Part 2, we’ll go over ways to protect yourself from identity theft.

President’s Day is coming up and many of you are planning a few days away. Many things we do when we are in vacation mode open us up to becoming a target of identity theft. Here are some things that can increase your risk of identity theft and ways you can protect yourself against identity thieves.

Recently, as I was reading the daily news I came across an interesting article from Experian about how your interests, job and even address can make you more likely to be a victim of identity theft.

It’s Valentine’s Day. A day to celebrate love with chocolate, flowers and identity theft? Maybe this isn’t the way you think of commemorating Cupid’s day, but identity thieves have figured out a few tricks to use the holiday to get into your financial accounts.

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and an identity thief might have more than a sweet sentiment in store for you. A popular identity theft scam this time of year is the Valentine e-card scam. Beware of all online greetings you receive this Valentine’s Day.

By Nikki Junker Social Media Coordinator, Identity Theft Resource Center Last week, I had a call from a woman who had begun to believe she was being scammed. While every call from a victim or potential victim makes me sad, or at least concerned, this particular call really affected me. The woman told me she had been communicating with a man through a popular dating site for a couple months and had become concerned because things did not seem quite right.

If your list of spring cleaning chores includes finally doing something about those boxes of old receipts, credit card statements and tax records, keep in mind that clearing out the clutter isn’t the only incentive – or concern – when getting rid of old paperwork. Those financial forms could become a potential gold mine for identity thieves.

The purpose of this blog series is to educate people about the ways that identities are stolen. Keep in mind, these stories are true (although I have omitted specific details for our members’ protection) and are described by real Identity Theft Resolution Agents. It is up to you if you are going to be proactive to protect yourself from identity theft after reading this post.