Five financial identity theft provention tips    There are some simple things you can do to protect yourself from financial identity theft. 1. When logging into your Internet banking, always do it by either typing in the URL yourself or use your bookmarks. NEVER follow a link from a website or an email appearing in your inbox. And always check that the URL starts with "https://" - the "s" stands for secure, meaning the connection is encrypted. 2. If you get an email in your inbox, claiming to be from your bank and they're either updating their records, their security, or you have had your account hacked, suspended or subject to 3. The same applies for any other type of contact, letter, phone call, or fax, asking you to give them your private information. Banks don't operate like that. They'll ask you to visit a branch. 4. When you hand out your credit card, be vigilant. If it disappears from sight, keep track of how long it's been gone. If it's been too long, go looking for it. If it's visible, watch it like a hawk. And if the employee sees you, who cares? If they're not dishonest, they'll just think you're paranoid (and you should be). If they are a crook, they'll move on to easier pickings. 5. Shred any documents containing any private information on them before putting them in the garbage - especially ones with sensitive data like bank details, etc. 6. Pick sensible passwords. Don't use your middle name, your birth date, or easy to think of ones like "password", "1234" or "abcd". Laugh, but all those, and other equally stupid ones, are commonplace. Aim for 8 characters, combine upper and lowercase, numbers and punctuation. Yes it's a pain to remember them and type in a complicated one... but that's the point. And change them regularly - every 3-4 months, or immediately if you suspect your security may have been compromised. 7. The big major banks are outsourcing transaction processing overseas, where precautions and regulations are sub par to the agreements that we think we have with them. Even though it is a pain to switch, check out your local credit unions and give them your business instead. Not only will you lessen your risk, but you'll be supporting local businesses. A win-win! 8. But, best of all, get a bullet-proof, proactive 24/7 monitoring service. There's far too much happening in our lives and in the life of the financial world for the man (or woman) in the street to keep up with it all. Get a professional. This is too important to play Russian Roulette with! |
an email hoax - BEWARE! Mouse over the link to see the real URL. If the URL is not your bank's URL, delete it! It's a phishing attempt to steal your information. They'll usually include a link to follow that will take you to a fake site, but one that LOOKS legit. If you mouse over that link, you'll generally see the real URL you'll be going to - it's almost never going to be the bank's URL.