ID theft? Been there, experienced that
We live in a time when technology can offer great convenience to our lives. But with these conveniences, we also need to exercise caution. Recently, when I was back home in Bakersfield for a district work week, I held a town hall meeting on identity theft prevention. A few days later, a story broke that hundreds of cases of identity theft have been reported in the Tehachapi area. As a victim of identity theft myself, I know what it is like to feel that you don't have control of your personal information. That is why I have been working to increase awareness of the problem, and the measures that can be taken to help prevent identity theft.
Every year an estimated 9 million Americans have their identity stolen. To help protect against this growing problem, I asked official representatives from local law enforcement and both state and federal government agencies to listen to local concerns and provide practical tips and safeguards against identity theft. At the town hall, we had representatives from the Bakersfield Police Department, the Kern County Sheriff's Department, the Internal Revenue Service, United States Postal Service and the Kern County District Attorney's office.
All of the agencies represented gave thorough and helpful advice. I especially found the list of "Top 10 Tips for Identity Theft Protection" from the California Office of Privacy Protection to be a good place to start for anyone wanting to take greater precautions. Some of these practices may seem quite obvious at first, but it is good to ask yourself if you can improve in any of these areas. Such things like shredding any personal information that is on paper rather than just throwing it out whole or shielding your computer from viruses and using strong passwords are all simple but sound ways to protect your identity.
Legislatively, I am looking into introducing a bill that would help people protect their identities from being stolen through change of address forms. Currently, when you turn in a change of address form to your local post office, no form of identification is required to validate that you are the person that is changing your address. The legislation that I am working on would require that identification be presented at the post office in order to submit a complete change of address form. I know that this might mean standing in line at the post office, but this small inconvenience can be an effective deterrent to would-be identity thieves who can cause great damage through a stolen identity.
If you missed the town hall meeting, you can catch it again as it re-airs on KGOV-TV. You can also visit my website (www.kevinmccarthy.house.gov). I have listed all the resources that were available at the meeting in my "spotlight" section on the home page.
Our country will continue to utilize more computer and information technology in the future, as these advances provide great convenience and efficiencies in our everyday lives. However, at the same time, we should always remain vigilant to the continued risks that our personal information can be exposed to, and take the necessary and preventive steps to protect ourselves and our families by keeping personal, identifiable information safe.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) represents the 22nd Congressional District. Community Voices articles are expanded commentaries that generally contain approximately 500 words. The Californian reserves the right to reprint commentaries in all formats, including on its web page.
