Protect Your Identity This Christmas

Christmas can be a busy time, not only with the arrival of visitors and a Christmas dinner to cook, but also with the seasonal additions of decorations, cards, Christmas trees and presents taking up space in our homes.

During this busy time it can be easy for our identity and confidential data to become vulnerable. 

To stay safe this Christmas, consider the following:

Bank cards and personal documents like passports are fairly small and could easily fall into the rubbish (or into the wrong hands) if left lying around. Store your cards and passports/ID cards/drivers license somewhere safe and out of sight (particularly if you or your children are hosting a Christmas party).

Any confidential paperwork such as bank statements and pay slips can easily be mixed up with rubbish and mistakenly thrown away. Create a filing system to store your paperwork in and keep a record of what you are storing. Again, for added security, store out of sight.

If you are disposing of any old paperwork, shred it instead of throwing out with general waste. Even if the details on the paperwork are out of date, it could still be used by a criminal.