Sen. Guglielmo Attends Forum on How to Protect Seniors from Identity Theft

September 26, 2012
Senator Tony Guglielmo and Representative Penny Bacchiochi in Somers listening to seniors about identity theft concerns.

Senator Tony Guglielmo and Representative Penny Bacchiochi in Somers listening to seniors about identity theft concerns.

Hartford, CT – Senator Tony Guglielmo (R-Stafford) joined Representative Penny Bacchiochi (R-Somers) and Special Investigator Pamela Brown, from Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection at a recent forum in Somers focused on protecting seniors from identity theft.
The Dept. of Consumer Protection special investigator shared some important tips. For example, it’s best to mail any bills with personal checks from postal boxes rather than home mailboxes with the flag up. Sometimes these get stolen, and the checks can give criminals direct access to your money. The following tips were also suggested:

  • It is also best to keep pocketbooks and wallets with you at all times, because sometimes a criminal will not steal the pocketbook or wallet, but rather will take the credit card, write down all the information, and put it back. They will then begin making purchases over the internet or phone with that information without you realizing anything was stolen.
  • Unless you shred everything, keep trash barrels with any discarded paperwork close to the house until pickup time. This will minimize the opportunity for “dumpster diving.”
  • There are numerous scams to watch out for including: false chimney-cleaning services, false warnings that your power will be shut off tonight unless money is exchanged (using “green” cards purchased from pharmacies) to callers claiming that a relative is in jail and needs money right away.
  • Take steps to independently verify any situation where you are asked to part with your money in an unexpected way.

    • Remember that if you wire money somewhere, it’s gone and cannot be recovered.

  • Monitor your credit card bills for any charges that aren’t yours.

Report any type of attempt or problem to the police so that it is documented and to increase the chance of catching criminals.

Get free credit reports regularly to uncover and fix any problems.

Free credit reports can be obtained instantly from this safe link from DCP’s site: http://www.ct.gov/dcp/cwp/view.asp?a=1629&q=304034

More info:

Federal ID theft info: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/

ID Theft Resource Center: http://www.idtheftcenter.org/