[starwind]

I’ve had my identity stolen (twice!). The first time I got things untangled, the second time I headed it off. You’re not wrong to be paranoid, but billionaires have bank accounts and hand over their passports all the time. If you keep a low-enough profile and secure your info, you probably don’t have much to worry about. Roughly 1.5 million families in the US are worth more than $10m and they manage.

[throwaway76312]

That's exactly what I am thinking. Many people are very wealthy, and they seem to manage. More than that, many wealthy people also have very low tech skills. So I struggle to square my intuitive need for stringent security measures (and the desire to do all the things you listed in your subcomment), and the fact that I think it very likely that wealthy low tech-skilled people do not seem to be hacked all the time...

[starwind]

I initial wrote this as the same comment but you didn't ask how to secure your identity in your question so here's a bonus on how to mitigate your risk if you care:

Deal with a broker that will back you up. Here’s Schwab’s policy https://www.schwab.com/schwabsafe/security-guarantee. Talk to them about what security they have for high-net worth individuals. And don’t feel like you have to have just one broker. Do the same for your bank and credit card companies. They have additional security options if you request them.

You’re focused on your passport, but have you secured your medical records? Talk to you doctor about getting a flag put on those records so they need to call you before they send them somewhere—you don’t need someone getting those by faxing your doctor a form saying they’re a specialist. Medical records have information like birthdates and ssns that don’t change so they go for more money on the black market.

Use your credit card for everything. Handing over an AmEx doesn’t give someone info about what bank you use. If you fill up at the gas station, you don’t have to worry about a skimmer draining your bank account cause you can just dispute any fraudulent activity.

Secure your financial info. Unenroll in credit card offers, put fraud alerts on your 3 credit reports, your Chex report, your Innovis report, and your NCTUE report. Renew that fraud alert annually—put it on your calendar. Also freeze those reports. https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/how-do-i-stop-re...

Many states let your hide your voter registration info which is how websites like mylife get your name and address.

Don’t give out your ssn except to jobs and the government—really no one else needs it. Your passport is perfect to establish identity and citizenship. If you think your passport has been compromised, get a new one which will have a new number. If someone demands your ssn, really push back and make it clear you’re worried about identity theft and what else can you give them to establish your identity?

If you use gmail, enroll in advanced security protection and use some physical token like a yubikey https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection/ I probably don’t have to tell you to keep your devices up-to-date

You can get a pin for your cell phone account if you’re worried about a sim-swapping attack. Again, talk to your phone company. If you have to do phone 2fa, a burner phone could be good.

And finally, monitor. I get pings every time money comes out of my bank account, my 401k, my investment account. I get push notifications when someone hits my credit report (that’s how I stopped the second identity theft incident).