7 Ways to Prevent Holiday Shopping Identity Theft

Sometimes it seems like we're helpless to protect ourselves against identity theft when shopping for holiday gifts, whether online or in brick-and-mortar stores. Fraudsters have myriad ways to steal credentials or otherwise gain illicit access to personal information, and we only have to slip up once. However, a recent survey by Experian's ProtectMyID service suggests that savvy shoppers are doing a good job of arming themselves against the threat of identity theft. Here's what they've been doing, and what you can do too.

Where They Shop
The survey, conducted by Edelman Berland, quizzed over 1,000 adults about their plans for shopping, and for protecting themselves. Of the respondents, 95 percent planned to shop at physical stores, 86 percent expected to shop online, and 41 percent intended to shop online using mobile devices.

The fact that most of the respondents planned to shop online, quite a few of them using mobile devices, doesn't mean they're confident about online shopping safety. In fact, 30 percent reported feeling that online shopping is less safe than shopping at a physical store.

How They (And You) Can Stay Safe
As long as you're visiting a brick-and-mortar store, you can take advantage of one simple, untraceable payment method—cold hard cash. Forty percent of those polled said they'll pay with cash to eliminate the chance of identity theft.

If you're going shopping at the mall or on the street, you'll naturally want to keep your resources safe. Protecting your purse or wallet is clearly important. I'm surprised that only 73 percent said they'd avoid leaving a purse or wallet in an unattended vehicle; I would have hoped for a figure more like 99 percent.

In the crush of holiday shoppers, there's always the chance you'll lose your wallet to a pickpocket. You can cut down on your potential risk by minimizing your wallet contents. Take only the credit cards you plan to use. If you're not going to write checks, leave the checkbook at home.

Debit cards don't have the fraud protection you get with a credit card; a thief who co-opts your debit card can clean out your bank account. Your best bet is to avoid using a debit card, but if you have no alternative, be sure to protect your PIN by shielding the keypad from others with your hand or body.

As noted, those surveyed felt that online shopping is riskier than shopping at a physical store. In the survey, 67 percent of consumers reported that they check to make sure a site is secure (HTTPS in the URL, lock icon on the address bar) before shopping. Another 61 percent reported that they take care to log out of shopping accounts after completing a transaction. That's another figure that ought to be higher, to my way of thinking. Of course you should avoid public Wi-Fi for shopping or other financial transactions. And use a password manager, so you can create a strong, unique password for each shopping site.

Your Safe Shopping List
To help you keep these safe shopping tips in mind, we've boiled down the advice above into a simple safe shopping list for you:

While you're thinking about it, check out our 10 Essential Steps for Protecting Your Identity. Armed with these tips, you can shop with confidence.