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Don't provide your zip code at the register. "You go to a gas pump, the way it verifies your identity if by asking what's your zip code. If you're talking about a merchant or clerk, that's not a part of the credit card processing methodology," says Foley.

Alone, your ZIP code might not be of much value all by itself, but criminals will take that information and post it on underground sites where they buy, sell and trade bunches of personal information. From those sites, criminals can purchase enough of your personal information to use it for fraud.

Disclosing ZIP codes allows "people to track their purchases.Consumers may provide their ZIP codes at the register "because they believe it's required for the transaction," he says. "They're not using it for credit card transactions.

Some stores are up-front about it and will ask you if you'd like to give them your information so you can get flyers or coupons. The problem comes when retailers don't make that clear to shoppers. They don't need your whole address to find you, either, thanks to the growing sophistication of big data.

Retailers ask for ZIP codes, Boyden said, because they want to send consumers marketing material such as direct mail. "Which is the very thing the statutes were intended to prevent," he said.

Examples of private address unique ZIP Codes include the headquarters of Walmart (72716). An example of a PO Box-only ZIP Code is 22313, which is used for PO Boxes at the main post office in Alexandria, Virginia, such as those used by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Both, Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster list zip-code as a verb, and they keep it all lowercase and use a hyphen. It means to mark something with a ZIP code, as in "Be sure to zip-code that letter."