If you’ve received a confirmation in the mail of your change of address – and you haven’t moved – consider it a tip that you’ve become a victim of identity theft.

This type of scam is becoming more and more common, and it’s easy to do. Scammers first obtain a change of address form from a local post office. Then, using information as simple as mail they’ve swiped from your mailbox or the phone book, they submit a change of address. Soon, all your mail comes to the thief, giving him all the information he needs to steal your identity and ruin your credit.

But the U.S. Postal Service does sort of help you out in this circumstance. When a change of address is submitted, the USPS sends a verification letter to both the old address and the new one. The letter will instruct you to contact the post office if the change is inappropriate. If you receive such a letter and you didn’t request a change of address, contact the post office immediately, The local postmaster will forward your mail if you don’t tell him or her to do otherwise.

This scam has happened all over the country, but there have been a multitude of cases reported in New Mexico and Texas.

Some tips to remember:

- If you receive mail at your home, pay attention if you don’t get any mail for more than a couple of days, even if other people at your home are getting mail. A change of address does not necessarily redirect mail for everyone at a particular address.

- Consider mailing your letters and bills from a secure public mailbox or at the post office, rather than from your home mailbox.

- Pick up your mail as soon as possible after it arrives at your mailbox. Don’t leave it sitting in the box overnight.

- Consider purchasing a locking mailbox.

Synthetic identity theft is fraud that is committed using a completely fabricated identity, as opposed to a stolen one. It’s widely regarded as one of the most prevalent forms of identity theft.

In this particular type of identity theft, the perpetrators literally create new identities, either by combining real information with fake information to establish new accounts with fictional identities, or by creating a new identity from completely fake information. Typically the thieves use a real Social Security number and combine it with a name other than the one associated with the number. The combination doesn’t often show up on the consumer’s credit report.

While there are no reliable figures documenting losses from synthetic identity theft, some experts estimate that these schemes constitute at least 20 percent of credit charge-offs, and 80 percent of losses from credit card fraud.

Synthetic identity theft is elusive because the individuals whose information was used may never become aware of the crime, and those who do rarely report it to law enforcement agencies because the combination of the name, address and Social Security number in the particular incident doesn’t correspond to one particular consumer.

In this type of theft, creditors are the hardest hit, but consumers are affected in three ways:

• Consumers partially pay for it. Creditors may bear the brunt of it, but they do often pass on this cost to consumers.

• Debt collectors could come after innocent consumers based on the use of Social Security numbers. Creditors could ignore the fictitious name and pursue the real individual attached to the number. Collection agencies have the capability to perform “Social (Security) searches” on numbers to find current addresses on delinquent debtors.

• Synthetic ID fraud creates file variations at the credit bureaus. This means that any information in another credit file, good or bad, can be linked to a consumer’s file.

How can you avoid becoming a victim? Check your credit report. Look for accounts that don’t belong to you. You’ll also want to check your mailbox, and look out for suspicious mail, such as change-of-address notices and credit offers with significant variations of your name.

Make sure to monitor your Social Security number. You can use services that look for illegal activity on your personal information, but pay special attention to monitoring just your number, so that you are notified of any suspicious activity using your number.