Colorado Ranks High In Identity Theft

According to new numbers released by the Federal Trade Commission, Colorado ranks 11th in the country when it comes to incidents of identity theft.

Paige Hanson is a certified identity theft risk management specialist who works for LifeLock.

She said various factors could contribute to Colorado’s high ranking, including the number of illegal immigrants and tourism.

According to Hanson, children are often targeted by thieves because young children’s Social Security numbers could be used for years to find work without getting detected.

Hanson said it is important for parents to not only check their own scores, but also those of their children.

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If parents find that their child has a credit history that is inaccurate, Hanson said they need to contact credit bureaus immediately and suppress their child’s credit report.

Unfortunately, Hanson said a report can only be suppressed after a child has become a victim of identity theft.

Another tip is for military families. If a soldier is deploying, ask about freezing their credit. Hanson said that will help protect their credit while they are overseas.

According to Hanson, it is also a good idea to use a cross cutter paper shredder when getting rid of documents that have personal information on them.

However, Hanson pointed out that there is now a software program that can “unshred” documents, so she suggested burning documents safely.