No Limits Ladies.com

A loved one fell victim to identity theft recently. The person obtained the loved one’s credit card, her driver’s license, and her social security number. They went on a bit of a shopping spree online (extra scary because they used all three pieces of information online – identity thieves are usually not concerned about the privacy of stolen information).

So how did they obtain all this information? Did they hack into a computer? Steal mail from her mailbox? Send one of those phishing emails? Purse snatch that super huge tote she lugs around?

Nope. They took it all from her tote, while she was sleeping.

The identity thief was a houseguest.

Heading full speed into the holiday season, many of us will be opening our doors to others. Some of these guests we know quite well. We trust those (unfortunately it was one of those trusted folks that was the identity thief, which made it all the more difficult to deal with). Others, well, they may be sweet Aunt Edna’s third cousin or Sally Jo’s new boyfriend or a guest of a party guest.

In other words, we don’t know who is in our house.

And the thing is that we have a lot of personal information lying around. Opened credit card bills on the kitchen table. Binders of financial statements next to the bed (okay, I might be the only one who keeps her financials in the bedroom). A purse left next to that comfy chair in the living room.

Please put as part of your holiday schedule gathering up and securing this information. Or you might spend it cancelling credit cards and arguing with credit bureaus.

Oh, yes, Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers!