Hurricane Katrina’s victims might soon face a new problem bringing further damage and loss: identity theft.


Many victims of Hurricane Katrina have left their homes with only the clothes they were wearing and looters will be able to steal social security numbers, credit cards, financial documents and all types of other information.

Evan Hendricks,editor of Privacy Times, has some good advice for survivors. He is the author of “Credit Scores and Credit Reports: How The System Really Works, What You Can Do”.

His advice includes:
Make a note to contact the credit bureaus in about 60 days to make sure no one is abusing the credit card
Do not be hasty in canceling credit cards and other financial accounts. This may make matters worse.

According to him online retailers should be particularly vigilant because many of these identity thieves will attempt to use credit cards and social security numbers to apply for credit with banks, get other cards, make purchases and find other ways to spend money online.

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