Experts Warn Maine Residents to Not Carry These 7 Items in Their Wallets

When it comes to what you carry on your person, we often find ourselves carrying some of our most sensitive documents and items with us. But, it's not always the safest or smartest thing to do. And now, because identity and financial theft have hit an all-time high, experts are warning Mainer's to be cautious and not carry these 7 specific items.

According to Nasdaq, it's estimated that more than 1,000,000 Americans had their identities stolen or compromised in 2023. That is higher than any other year on record- and those records date all the way back to 2021. The need to take care of and protect your identity is at an all-time high, and we're here to help.

According to identity theft experts, these are several items that you want to consider either leaving at home or, at the very least, somewhere less accessible than the wallet you carry on your person.

The first item on the list is the ever-important social security card. This seems like a no-brainer, but you'd be amazed at how many people not only carry their own social security cards, but also have their spouse's and children's cards with them as well. Leave them at home in a safe place. All someone needs to begin the identity-stealing process is access to your SSN, so don't give them the chance.

Yes, I know. You might need your checkbook when you're going somewhere, and that's okay. Experts just remind you that if you know you're not going to need it on a specific day, just leave it at home. Not only could access to your checkbook from an unwanted thief be financially devastating, but even just access to your account and routing numbers could be enough for your checking out to be drained by a thief.

This one may seem a little bit odd at first, but hear me out. We're talking about multiple credit cards. If you, like most Americans, have multiple credit cards, there's really no reason to carry them all everywhere, is there? Experts from Discover Card remind people to select the card they use the most and carry that one. The rest, like your Kohl's card, can stay at home in a safe place until you know you're going to need it on a specific day.

Surprisingly, there's a large number of Mainers who carry a single spare key to their home inside their wallet or purse. You don't need me to explain to you why this is an obviously bad idea. Not only could access to your house key be catastrophic, but if the thief has access to your entire wallet, it's likely they can find your address on your drivers license. Instead, consider using digital code-based locks on your home, or hide the key somewhere inconspicuous on your property.

It's tough not write down your passwords to everything on a piece of scratch paper, isn't it? Between each account having different password requirements and so many of them making you change them every 90 days, trying to remember them all is darn near impossible. This has prompted a warning from identity theft experts about toting them around with you. Recently it has come to light that many people actually carry their written login information for different accounts inside their wallet or purse. For obvious reasons this is not a good idea and should not be done.

I'll be completely honest with you, this is one I hadn't even thought about before. But receipts are actually a desired item to obtain for identity thieves in Maine. How often do we make a purchase, pay with our card, then just shove the receipt into our wallets? Pretty often I would argue. Well those receipts oftentimes contain sensitive information about our method of payment including partial of full credit card numbers. We're not saying don't take your receipt from the store- but empty them out when you get back home.

Of all of the aforementioned items, I am the most guilty when it comes to this one. We're talking about unused gift cards. How many times have we been fumbling around in our wallets or purses for something and we have to thumb through 486 gift cards that we completely forgot we even had. While it's pretty hard to steal someone's identity from a gift card, you certainly don't want a thief to have access to any unused balances. Leave them at home until you know you're going to the place where it can be redeemed.