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Prudential Financial is notifying both current and former employees of Prudential that laptop computers containing personal information about their employees including social security numbers and names were stolen on December 1, 2006 from within the Towers Perrin company who provides some actuarial consulting services to Prudential.  At the request of the New York law inforcement authorities, Towers Perrin delayed notification to Prudential so their investigation would not be compromised.  Interestingly enough under Press Releases at Towers Perrin, you will find no such notification of this incident as of this writing.

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes not only in the United States, but the whole World.  According to research by Star Systems 1 in 20 Americans have been become a victim of identity theft.  Identity theft thieves can use your private information to obtain credit, make purchases or even use your identity to get a job.  Cleaning up this mess can cost you hundreds of dollars and many hours of your personal time.

It is prudent in this day and age to help limit your exposure to identity theft.  Below are just a small fraction of the practices that you should follow:

• Shred all mail and personal documents before putting them in the garbage.  How many courtesy checks to you get from your credit card company?  An identity theft thief can have a field day with these.
• Don’t just look at how much your bill is for.  Verify all charges before you write that check.
• Try and limit the amount of credit cards that you have.  Even better, get a credit card with a limited credit amount that you only use for online purchases or even get a credit card where you can create temporary credit card numbers for one time purchases (If the number is stolen, it won’t work anyway).
• When I get a new credit card, I will put a copy of the first statement in a safe deposit box down at the bank.  This way if my card gets stolen, I can almost easily get all of the contact numbers to cancel my cards.
• Under Federal Law and laws of different states you are eligable every twelve months to obtain a free credit report from the big three reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.  Use this to your advantage.  Even better space out requesting your credit report by getting first from Equifax and then a couple of months later Experian and so on.  This way you are only going a couple of months at a time until you get an update on your credit history.
• Prevent unsolicited credit offers by calling 1-888-567-8688 to remove your name from these types of request.
• Don’t keep your social security card in your wallet. 

If you are a victim of Identity Theft there are some steps that you need to follow:

• Notify your local policy of the crime.
• Nofity your credit card companies.
• If your checks are stolen, notify the banks to have them close out your account and ask them to put a watch on all checking account transactions.
• If you suspect that your social securty number has been stolen, call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213.
• Notify Equifax, Experian and TransUnion of the theft so they can put a watch on your credit reports.

It’s amazing what’s in store for people who are victims of the Prudential situation.