How can you protect your own personal information?

Although basic details such as your name, address and telephone number are already in the public domain, there are ways you can restrict access to these records such as by requesting a private or ‘ex directory’ phone number, asking for your telephone number and address to be removed from mailing list (this will help to prevent cold calling and junk mail) and also by simply being very careful about who you share your information with.

Question all Queries for Personal information
You should think twice if someone calls you directly or emails and asks you to confirm any of your personal details.  Ask them why they need to know this information, and if you have any suspicions at all do not reply.  Mobile phone companies typically cold call potential new customers and start asking you a whole host of personal questions related to your current supplier and phone bills, and in reality this is none of their business, and they are just asking you these questions to gain more insight into what package/deal to offer you and also to keep you talking so they have more time to convince you to swap to their service.  As well as these annoying but potentially harmless calls, identity thieves could also be masquerading as legitimate organisations, and will try to trick you into revealing as much information as possible.  Be wary of anyone asking you questions about very sensitive personal information such as your Social Security Number, Insurance policies and bank/credit card details.  Legitimate providers would never ask you to reveal sensitive account information over the phone or by email, and you should treat any request such as this as suspicious and do not reply until you have confirmed the request is genuine by contacting the provider through the proper channels.