I recently found myself in a perplexing situation. 
Three weeks after submitting paper enrollment forms for an employer-sponsored program, I sent an email inquiring after the status of my registration. The response that came back was disheartening: my documents were missing. Dark thoughts immediately crossed my mind, all swirling around the personal information those papers contained–names, birth dates, social security numbers. Anyone with intent could use the material to harm the individuals the forms required me to name. I quickly warned my family members and advised them to request free credit reports that are available to consumers and to watch out for any suspicious credit card or bank account activity. After I had sent in replacement forms, I received word, to my great relief, that the original packet had been found.
Identity theft is an unfortunate fact of life nowadays. We may take all the right precautions, and carefully-guarded personal information can still fall into the wrong hands. Then what can we do? The library has available for lending items on identity theft and its prevention. Also, the Federal Trade Commission has released new material on what we should know about identity theft and what we can do when it happens, including these three short videos:
—–
—–
—–
