In a recent survey of travelers, contracted by Expirian, of the travelers responding, 39% said they had either been directly victimized or know someone who was victimized while traveling, who either experienced having sensitive identity data stolen, and/or encountered identity theft itself while away from home. One in five travelers indicated they had a smartphone, passport, credit card or driver’s license, each one containing important identity information, stolen while traveling.
Those are startling statistics to me.
There are commonsense precautions you can take to prevent identity theft before traveling to avert the serious consequences it can have on your life.
Here are eight tips for preventing identity theft before you leave home to travel domestically or internationally.
1. Don’t buy from unknown travel companies unless you check them out thoroughly and carefully — Bogus travel companies and travel scam artists are ready to steal your money, credit card information and your identity. Don’t order or pay for tours or flights, etc., by purchasing from a travel company you don’t know. If you want to use them, at least check them out with the local Better Business Bureau, as well as with friends and relatives. Only use them if they are well rated and you find people you trust who have had a positive experience with them.
2. Stop your mail and newspapers — At least stop your newspapers. You can’t read them while you’re away, plus most newspapers have digital editions to keep you up to date while you travel. You don’t want potential thieves to know you’re away by allowing newspapers to pile up outside your house. With mail, if you have a neighbor or nearby family member who you trust, have them make sure no mail or packages are left at your door and ask them to take them in as necessary. That’s what I do when traveling.
Mail left outside can contain lots of identity information which is easily stolen. Newspapers or mail left outside your house tells thieves you’re away. If they break in, who knows how much identity information they can steal along with all your belongings.
3. Leave your checks and checkbook, plus bills (bills contain personal and account information) at home while traveling — If you must pay bills while traveling, use the Internet to pay them. Setup online accounts before you leave home.
4. Setup online bank, credit and debit card logins to review your accounts — You want to be able to monitor the activity in your bank and credit card accounts while traveling to ensure no problems or fraud have occurred in them.
5. Make copies of all your important identity and travel documents before you travel — In case of a theft of the original documents, you need to have backup to prove your identity to get new identification documents, as quickly as possible, while away from home. In addition, in case of a dispute while traveling, you want to have a backup copy of your reservations and other travel information. I scan all my documents and save them as password protected Adobe PDF files in my Smartphone, and in online “cloud” storage. You could also make paper copies and stow them in a safe place.
6. Lock your smartphone, tablet and laptop — Use your smartphone and tablet’s ability to use passcode protection for those devices to safeguard the sensitive personal information in them in case they’re stolen. Use your laptop’s ability to put in password protection, and if available, boot passcode protection which can lock thieves out of your hard drive.
7. Clean out your wallet, pockets and purse — There are many forms of identification which are unneeded while traveling, especially internationally. For example, for Americans, you should never travel with your Social Security card, and if you’re a senior traveling internationally, leave your Medicare card at home, too. Medicare doesn’t work outside the US. Leave local membership Id’s at home. Only travel with those Id’s which you might actually use while away from home.
8. Get your credit/debit cards in order — Leave all unnecessary credit/debit cards at home. Just bring two or three cards from different accounts in the event there is an issue with one of your accounts or if a card is stolen. I typically take two credit cards and my ATM/debit card while traveling. One credit card stays in my room/hotel safe when out and about. My ATM/debit card is only used to retrieve cash from an ATM, never to purchase goods or services, as I have more protection against fraud with credit cards. I leave it in the room/hotel safe unless I intend to get cash from an ATM that day.
Next week, in “9 keys to preventing identity theft while traveling,” I’ll discuss how to prevent identity theft while traveling, plus offer a bonus key to carry out when you return home.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
