THE ISSUE: ID theft

OUR OPINION: Individuals can do only so much; retailers must get aggressive

If it hasn’t happened to you, consider yourself lucky. The statistics are disturbing: Every three seconds in this country, someone’s identity is stolen. It’s become an epidemic. And the thieves are experts.

Recently, 11 people were charged with the largest case of identity theft. They are accused of hacking nine major retailers and the theft and sale of more than 41 million credit and debit card numbers.

The retailers affected were Boston Market, SportsAuthority, Barnes & Noble, OfficeMax, Forever 21, BJ’s Wholesale Club, DSW Shoes, Dave & Buster’s and the TJX Companies, which include TJMaxx and Marshalls stores.

Closer to home, headlines locally tell stories of ID theft happening via individual hackers and thieves, and even through an organized ID theft ring.

It is a problem that has come home − potentially to every home.

LowCards.com, a free, independent Web site that helps consumers compare credit cards, offers advice on how to protect yourself:

1. Don’t publicly post anything you may use as a password: your birth date, pet’s name, mother’s maiden name, or your school. Identity thieves can use the information you post to guess your password.

2. Regularly review your statements from your accounts. Make sure all the purchases that appear are transactions that you actually authorized.

3. Pay attention to your monthly bills and follow up with creditors if one does not arrive on time. A missing credit card bill could mean an identity thief has changed your billing address to cover his/her tracks.

4. Put a fraud alert on your account. It will notify creditors to verify your identification before issuing credit in your name. A security freeze prevents potential creditors from accessing your credit report without your consent. The credit reporting company may charge a fee to place or remove a security freeze.

5. If you are moving, notify credit card companies and financial institutions in advance of any change of address or telephone number. Contact the sender if your statements are not received in the mail by their usual time.

6. Watch your mail. When a breach occurs and you were exposed, the company is required to send you a notification letter with an explanation and what to do. It may also offer a free credit monitoring service to monitor your account and pay for the initial cost of a security freeze. These letters are easy to miss and throw away because they look like junk mail and may come from an unfamiliar third-party service.

7. Order a free copy of your credit report at www.freeannualcreditreport.com. The big three national credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) are all required to give you a free credit report once a year and if you stagger them correctly, you can get a free credit report once every four months from one of the agencies.

8. If you use a wireless router, enable the encryption to scramble the data you send online.

9. Shred the following items you get in the mail: receipts, copies of credit applications, insurance forms, physician statements, bank checks and statements, expired charge cards, convenience checks and credit offers. Clean the receipts out of your wallet and car several times a week.

10. Mail anything with personal information or payment at the post office, not from your mailbox.

Importantly, if you become a victim, no your rights. Your credit card issuer offers protection against unauthorized purchases. And under federal law, your maximum liability for unauthorized use of your credit card is $50. If you find unauthorized charges on your billing statement, make contact immediately to resolve the matter,

Beyond you as an individual, the time has come for retailers to get more aggressive.

As Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com, puts it: “We are moving to a cashless society so the threat of identity theft will increase in the years to come. Retailers need to take major steps to protect their customers. But there are a number of steps that consumers can do to both prevent and limit credit card fraud.”

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