Starting this month, citizens receiving Medicare benefits will receive a new card in the mail. The card will be almost identical to the old one, except for one minor change. A person’s social security number will be replaced with a random idenfiying number provided by Medicare and Medicaid Services.

This change has been made in order to protect the beneficiary’s identity in case the card is lost or stolen.

This change will have a positive impact on citizens all throughout the country. Nowadays, with all the technology that is around us, it seems that protecting our personal information has become harder than ever.

Since I have had a cellphone, I have received at least one call from an unknown number saying something along the lines of, “You have won a free cruise, please give us your personal information in order to claim your prize.”

Scams like the one I described can easily be identified since they typically sound too good to be true. That’s because they are. After these scammers have obtained your personal information, they can make charges to your credit card, obtain your social security number and apply for loans without your consent.

There are some simple things we employ to prevent our personal identity from being stolen. If you get a call from an unknown number, hang up if the person says you won a prize or claims to be from agencies such as the IRS or the police department saying that you will be arrested unless payment is made over the phone. While online, whether  checking your bank account, paying a credit card bill or simply doing some online shopping, it’s important to close the browser as soon as the transaction is complete.

Taking care of our personal identity can be an easy thing to do but at the same time, one mistake can lead to our information being placed in the wrong hands, so do everything you can to protect it.