Western Rural Police Monthly Newsletter February 2015

Some of the measures you can take to prevent you from becoming a victim of crime.

Identity theft sounds innocuous, but can have long term effects on individuals' ability to obtain future credit. Offenders will use a variety of means to gather basic information about you (name, address, phone number etc) and then use this to try to gather extra information – possibly by phoning you up, pretending to be from a bank or computer company, or going through rubbish in your wheelie bin for un-shredded documentation etc. They will then use this additional information to apply for things such as financial loans or home delivery shopping, which they will intercept before it reaches your door. Please treat your personal information with the same care that you take of your credit cards or cheque books – destroy or shred any paperwork with such details and do not divulge personal information to unsolicited callers.

Secondly, social media evolves quickly, with new sites quickly gaining in popularity. However, all sites require a certain amount of personal information about each user upon registration. They will also request additional information which enables additional features of the site to be accessed. Unless each user goes into 'settings' for the site to restrict how this information is used, then this information may well be available to all other users of the site! This information may well identify when a user is not at home, such that an offender will know when an address is unoccupied. If you use any social media sites (Facebook / Instagram / Twitter etc), please make sure you adjust your security settings to restrict who has access to your personal information.

Inspector Keith Curbishley