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How to Prevent Identity Theft

How can I create a good PIN number or password?

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Linda Sherry
Director, National Priorities, Consumer Action
http://www.consumer-action.org  
 

Linda Sherry, Consumer Action’s director of national priorities and one of the organization’s chief spokespersons, joined the San Francisco-based national consumer education and advocacy group in 1994 from a background as a weekly newspaper reporter.

Consumer Action (www.consumer-action.org), founded in 1971, has a national reputation for free multilingual consumer education on personal finance issues.

Sherry, who moved to Washington, DC, in August 2004 to establish an office for Consumer Action, is responsible for the organization’s national advocacy work and for the research and writing of Consumer Action’s free educational publications and web site content. Her recent projects for Consumer Action include publications on home buying, credit card terms and conditions, bankruptcy, ID theft, Internet privacy, cell phones and investing vs. savings. Sherry is chief surveyor and coordinator of Consumer Action’s popular pricing surveys of rates for credit cards and telephone services. She is the editor of Consumer Action’s newsletter, Consumer Action News.

Sherry has received awards for Consumer Action publications from the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (Excellence in Consumer Education, 1996, 2000 and 2003) and U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs (1995 National Consumer Week). Sherry serves as a member of the National Consumers League Fraud Alliance steering committee.

Before joining Consumer Action, Sherry was managing editor of AsianWeek in San Francisco from 1991-1994. Previously she was a reporter at The Almanac newspapers in Menlo Park, CA; The New York Times Long Island Section and The East Hampton Star in East Hampton, NY. She was the founding editor of the Sag Harbor Herald, a weekly newspaper in Long Island, NY.

How can I create a good PIN number or password?

In this video, Linda Sherry details the best ways to prevent identity theft and what you can do if you think your identity has been stolen.

This expert: 28,938 views

This series: 6,616 views

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Identity

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Transcripts

Host:How can I create a good PIN number or password?

Linda Sherry: The most important thing in creating a PIN or password is to make sure that you use a combination of letters and numbers. Don't use obvious things that a lot of people might use; like for instance, the pet's name is a very common thing and somebody could find that about you, just where you walk your dog, for instance; they might know your dog's name is Rover. Besides that, change them frequently. Don't just keep it there forever. Make sure that when you use especially when you are going to bank accounts and that kind of places online, that you don't use the remember me password function, which is of course, is so easy to use. Never ever write down your PINs and passwords; memorize them. That's the key step you can take and certainly never write it down anywhere near proximity to the bank card or the credit card where it can be used with.

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