My very close friend recently had her life turned upside by someone who stole her identity. This thief stole her identity from credit card information that she used online. The thief then proceeded to charge $16,000 on her credit card. I saw firsthand how it turned her life upside down. It took her almost a year and $5,000 in attorney fees to rectify the problem.
It hit even closer to home for me when my 25 year old daughter recently had her wallet stolen. The thief charged over $1000 on her credit card and tried to get money from her bank account. The store clerks that allowed the transactions did not even verify the signature on the card…nor did they look at the name on the card to verify that the card was under a women’s name but a man was using it. It was a very frustrating experience.
It seems lately I am hearing more and more stories from people just like these stories that have been affected by some type of identity theft. I recently read that as many as 9 million Americans have had their identities stolen. This means that checking your credit scores once a year is no longer enough protection. I started researching how I could protect myself and my family from this growing crime. Here are a few tips that I found to help safeguard and protect your identity and outsmart identity thieves.
*Know who you are dealing with!
*Don’t use your debit card to pay for anything online.
*Look at your credit card and bank statements online at least once a week to check for unwanted charges. And if a credit card bill does not arrive in the mail on, notify the issuer right away. Someone may have taken the bill from the mailbox or changed or account address.
*Protect your PIN number. Shield it whenever you enter it into a keypad so people surrounding you cannot see it.
*Keep all your sensitive information private– phone numbers addresses, email, off social networking sites. If you conduct business online use your own computer. Public computers are less secured. Never send a user name, password or personal info via email.
*Use strong passwords. Include letters & symbols. Do not use personal info for passwords. Change passwords regularly.
*Have a good bank that monitors for fraud. On your debit and credit card have a prompt that requires your ID be verified on all transactions.
*Keep your voice down. Don’t charge things over the phone in public.
*Shred it. Don’t throw out anything with your address, account numbers or Social Security number on it. Shred it instead. Do not carry your social security card with you.
*Don’t store credit card and bank numbers on your cell phone.
*Hang up! Never give personal information to telephone solicitors, even if they offer you a prize. Also, your credit card company will never call you asking for personal card information. Never give your credit card info over the phone to an unsolicited caller.
*Beware of phishing scams. Don’t respond to any pop-ups. When you see an email that looks like it’s from a bank, PayPal, eBay, or any other site you might be registered to, be on guard. Look for misspelled or strange sender email addresses—they may be phishing. Don’t verify any account information directly through an email. Go to the service provider’s website instead. Log in from there.
Related posts:
