I’ve been dying to write this post for a while. Before I begin, I do need to say that as a journalist I’ve specialized in security, privacy, and identity for many years, particularly as it pertains to financial matters. The result is that I know too much, and it has rendered me careful. Well, I call it careful. Others call me paranoid.

I’m so careful about identity theft and invasion of privacy I won’t even have an online photo album of my family because I fear it makes us vulnerable. I won’t let my husband get EZ Pass because it’s a heavily trafficked online repository that can’t be protected properly. He’s also not allowed to: shop online unless I approve the website, field any telemarketing calls…Wait, there are so many restrictions on him I won’t list them all quite yet. The fact that he could be the poster child for risky consumerism was the inspiration for the checklist below.

But first, the compelling reason you and your kids need to go to such great lengths: If your financial identity gets stolen, it can take years to straighten out, and that is no exaggeration. In the meantime, you could lose your house, your credit, the works.

Your teens and college students are particularly vulnerable because a) They live online; and b) They are tableau rasa in terms of credit. So a hacker with terrible credit, who wants to start over, with no history, might just choose one of your kids. It’s an interesting trend, because it used to be that a hacker with bad credit wanted to steal an established good credit identity, in order to have maximum purchasing power.

But nowadays, a fresh start is just as appealing. It reminds me of the creepy trend in the 1980s—and it’s probably still happening—where criminals would steal the social security numbers of dead people who were never declared dead, and using that number to steal their identity and live their financial lives.

Scared yet? I am. So here’s my identity theft prevention list. Give it to your kids. If they foster good habits, they have the best chance to protect themselves. And please write to me if you can think of more do’s and don’ts.

1. Do not accept telemarketing calls, even it’s a known quantity, like AT&T. Tell them to give you a phone number, and you’ll call them back to verify. If it’s an organization you’ve never heard of, forget. And don’t give them your address over the phone.

2. Pretty much every state has a web site where you declare that you do not want to receive certain junk mail or telemarketing calls. Google it, or call your local Chamber of Commerce to find it. The less your personal profile is circulated, the better.

3. Do due diligence on website shopping. Never buy anything from a site where there’s no phone number to call, or where someone doesn’t answer the phone. Do not buy from a site that doesn’t use security servers, which pop up and tell you it’s secure. (I will do an entire post on safe Internet shopping.)

4. Test the card swiper at ATMs, gas stations, and other stand-alone, unsupervised credit card and debit card kiosks. The swiper should not be wobbly. If it is, its’ a fake, and someone has installed it to read and store all your magnetic stripe data—which means everything, from bank account numbers, PINs, name, address, phone numbers. Hackers then put that data on another card, go to an ATM across town, and wipe you out. Surveillance cameras not only don’t help, but they can be rigged by hackers to see which PIN you enter on the keyboard.

5. Get the extras on cards: Some good news is that student credit cards, pre-paid reloadable cards, and debit card come with offers for credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Pay for any extra security service that sends you alerts about potential fraud. It’s worth it. And where available, get a credit card with your photo on it.

6. Do not use free email to send financial information to anyone. No gmail, aol, etc. They cannot offer the protection of paid email services.

7. Never write down your exact birth date and zip code on the same form. Anyone can get your medical records, and if they can get those, they can get your financial records. Put the month and year, but not the date.

8. Change your passwords frequently.

9. Use cash or debit cards at restaurants wherever possible. One of the top places credit card information is stolen is in restaurants, off signed receipts. If a hacker has your signature on a credit card slip, they can scan it and do some damage.

10. Don’t put personal data on social networking sites.

11. If you receive a strange email that asks you for personal information that is in any way financial, verify the sender by phone before you send it. Talk to the person. This goes for emails that look like they’re coming from a phone company customer service department, or from a friend. A huge hacking scam infesting social networking sites like Facebook right now is called phishing. It’s where an email seems like it’s coming from a friends, but it’s not. And if you click on a link in the email, they can grab your email address, the code associated with it, your password for your email. And if they have that, they have the keys to your kingdom.

12. Many credit unions offer identity theft products for a minimal fee or, in some cases, free. Sign up for them.

13. Do not fill out forms on unsecured websites.

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