October 2007.indd - Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc.

PAGE 8
OCTOBER 2007
Crime Prevention Through
Environmental Design (C.P.T.E.D.)
What is C.P.T.E.D.?
C.P.T.E.D. practices incorporate aspects of
safe design and retrofitting of our homes, businesses,
schools and communities. “Defensible
space” is a design concept which puts control,
both actual and perceived, in the control of the
people who are supposed to be using the area,
and exposes those who are up to no good. There
are three primary principles of defensible space:
natural surveillance, territoriality, and access
control.
Primary Aspects
#1 Natural
Surveillance
This allows intruders and offenders
to be easily seen by
people using the property and
people passing by the property.
Another way to explain this is
“visual control.” Carefully designed
buildings, appropriately
placed lighting and well chosen
(and maintained) landscaping
encourages natural surveillance.
Identity Theft
#2 Territoriality
This strategy is used to create
the perception that someone is
in control of the area. Another
way to explain it is a “sense of
turf.” This can be done by distinguishing
private space from
semi-private and public through
the use of signs, landscaping,
pavement designs or fencing.
#3 Access Control
Access control safeguards
by denying access to or escape
How Identity Theft Occurs
HOW IDENTITY THIEVES GET YOUR PERSONAL
INFORMATION
•They get information from business or other institutions by stealing records
or information while they’re on the job, bribing an employee who has access to
these records, hacking these records, or conning information out of employees.
•They may steal your mail, including bank statements, credit card offers, and new
unused checks.
•They may steal your wallet or personal information from your home.
Skimming, Phishing, Pretexting, and Dumpster Diving
ID Thieves may steal your credit or debit card numbers by capturing the information
in a data storage device attached to an ATM in a practice known as “skimming.”
They may steal personal information from you through email (“phishing”)
or phone (“pretexting”) by posing as legitimate companies and claiming that you
have a problem with your account. ID thieves will
rummage through your trash in a practice known
as “dumpster diving.”
How to Prevent Identity Theft
ACCOUNT SECURITY
• Place passwords on your credit card, bank, and
phone accounts. Avoid using easily available information
like your mother’s maiden name, your birth
date, the last four digits of your SSN or your phone
number, or a series of consecutive numbers.
• Secure personal information in your home, especially
if you have roommates, employ outside help,
or are having work done in your home.
• Ask about information security procedures in
your workplace or at businesses, doctor’s offices,
or other institutions that collect your personally
identifying information. Find out how your information
will be shared with anyone else.
• Don’t give out personal information on the
phone, through the mail, or on the Internet unless you’ve initiated the contact
or are sure you know whom you’re dealing with. Before you share any personal
information, confirm that you are dealing with a legitimate organization.
• Deposit outgoing mail in post office collection boxes or at your local post office,
rather than in an unsecured mailbox.
• Tear or shred your charge receipts, copies of credit applications, insurance
forms, physician statements, checks and bank statements, expired charge cards
that you’re discarding, and credit offers you get in the mail. To opt out of receiving
credit offers in the mail call 1-888-5-OPTOUT.
• Don’t carry your Social Security card; leave it in a secure place.
• Give your Social Security Number (SSN) only when absolutely necessary. If
someone asks for your SSN, ask: Why do you need it? How will it be used?
How do you protect it from being stolen? What will happen if I don’t give you
my SSN?
from a location, and increasing
the perception of risk to
the offender. This involves placing
barriers between the area
to be protected and the outside
world. One-way turnstiles
at hotly contested basketball
games or gating off all but one
entrance which passes by the
front windows of the elementary
school office during school
hours would be examples of
access control. Others include
strong door frames and good
locks on doors and windows.
C.P.T.E.D. Check List
Yes No Is your address lighted and clearly visible
from the street at night?
Yes No Are outdoor lights placed to illuminate
the walls and entrance points of your
house and not blind passersby?
Yes No Do you leave your porch lights on at
night?
Yes No Are shrubs pruned away from doors and
windows, and up from the ground, to
allow natural surveillance and prevent
hiding places?
Yes No Are trees limbed up and hedges trimmed
down to keep sight lines clear into and
out of your property? Do you have “Good
Neighbor” fences that allow others to
keep an eye on your property?
Yes No Are all doors and windows equipped
with an additional lock? Are door frames
reinforced with high security strike plates
and 3 inch screws?
Yes No Have you changed the locks since you
moved in?
Yes No If there are no windows near your doors,
are the doors equipped with wide angle
(180 degree) viewers?
Yes No Are your ladders secured so they can’t
be used to gain access to upper story
windows?
Yes No Have you made sure your drain pipes,
trellises, garage roofs, trees or fences
cannot be used to gain entrance to upper
story windows?
• When ordering new checks, pick them up at the bank instead of receiving
them in the mail.
COMPUTER SECURITY
• Virus protection software should be updated regularly, and patches for your operating
system and other software programs should be installed to protect against
intrusions and infections that can lead to the compromise of your computer files
and passwords.
• Do not open files sent to you by strangers, or click on hyperlinks or download
programs from people you don’t know.
• Use “strong” passwords – combinations of letters (upper and lower case) and
number.
• Use a firewall program if you use a high-speed Internet connection that leaves
your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day to stop uninvited access
to your computer.
• Do not conduct financial transactions of any kind over the internet unless you
are using a secure browser to encrypt or scramble sensitive information. Look for
“https” instead of “http” in the location bar, and a padlock icon near the bottom
of the browser window.
• Look for website privacy policies to answer questions
about maintaining accuracy, access, security,
and control of personal information collected by the
site, how the information will be used, and whether
it will be provided to third parties.
If Your Identity Has Been Stolen
TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION
• Place a fraud alert on your credit reports, and review
your credit reports. Fraud alerts help prevent
an identity thief from opening any more accounts
in your name. Contact one of the three credit bureaus:
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com
Experian: 1-888-397-3742; www.experian.com
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.
com
• Close the accounts you know, or believe, have been
tampered with or opened fraudulently.
• File a report with your local police or the police in the community where the
identity theft took place.
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Visit www.consumer.
gov/idtheft or call 1-877-438-4338 to register your complaint.
• Obtain a copy of “Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft” from
the Federal Trade Commission (see above for contact info) and follow their suggestions
for recovery from identity theft.
MORE IDENTITY THEFT INFORMATION
For much more detailed identity theft prevention and resolution information visit
www.consumer.gov/idtheft and download or view the Federal Trade Commission’s
June 2005 “Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft.” This information
sheet is only a brief summary of the useful identity theft tips in the longer document.