How can you avoid ID theft? The fact is, you may not be able to avoid it entirely because it can happen anytime, anywhere to anybody. But there are some steps you can take to make it more difficult for thieves to steal your identity and to protect yourself in case you do become victimized.

Credit cards, bank accounts and Social Security numbers are among the most common targets of ID theft, but brazen thieves have also tapped into health insurance accounts to pay for their own medical services and ripped off the identities of college students to take out bogus student loans.

How do identity thieves get access to your private information? They use many schemes, both low tech and high tech, including dumpster diving in trash cans to find discarded bank or credit card statements, stealing mail and hacking into personal computers or corporate databases to gather confidential information.

However, there are some steps you can take to keep ID thieves at bay:

• Don’t throw anything with your personal information in the trash—particularly bank and financial account statements and pre-approved credit card offers. It’s best to shred those items before you discard them.
• Don’t give out any personal information over the phone unless you initiated the contact.
• Never click on attachments or links from unsolicited emails—even if they appear to be from legitimate businesses or government agencies.
• Deposit your credit card payments and similar mail in secure mailboxes.
• Get your credit report annually from the major consumer reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, to make sure there are no odd entries on your report.
• When you leave town, put a hold on the mail and stop the newspaper.
• On your computer, keep your firewall and virus blocker up to date.
• Watch your credit card statements carefully to make sure no bogus charges appear.

Those precautions should help you avoid becoming the victim of identity theft, but there is no guarantee. If you do see false charges on your credit card or withdraws from your bank account that you didn’t initiate, you need to take several steps to minimize the damage:

• Notify the credit card company or bank immediately. Then cancel your credit or debit card.
• Report the incident to the police.
• Notify the three national consumer reporting agencies and ask them to put a fraud alert on your credit report.
• If you lose your wallet, contact your bank and credit card companies immediately and have them cancel the old cards and reissue new ones to you.

By taking the proper precautions, you can reduce the risk of ID theft and help avoid the extensive toll that it can take on your personal finances.