Identify theft and other financial fraud is a relatively common crime, but if you take certain preventative measures, you can help minimize your risk and be comforted in the fact that your ID and your money are a little safer than they might be otherwise.
Here are just a couple of things you can do:
Monitor Your Credit Report
Using free services like annualcreditreport.com, check your credit report just once per year to make sure there isn’t anything hurting your score than you were not responsible for. Look for suspicious activity or new accounts that were opened without your knowledge. Monitoring your credit report once a year will allow you to not only maintain your credit if it’s good already, but also catch possible identity theft early if it happens.
Initiate Fraud Alerts From Each of the 3 Credit Bureaus
Another great way to protect yourself against financial identity fraud is to set up fraud alerts from the 3 major credit bureaus: Transunion, Experian, and Equifax. These sites not only help you monitor your credit report on a yearly basis, but you can also set up free fraud alerts so that the company may catch a potential source of fraud sooner than you may have during your yearly check. This way, you don’t have to worry about a fraud occurring in February and you not knowing about it until you check your report again the following January.
Use a Credit Card For All Your Online Purchases
Sure, often times when someone steals your financial identity, it’s your credit card information. Still, using a credit card for all your online purchases is much smarter than say sending money via a bank transfer because with a credit card you can more easily refute the charges.
Additionally, some credit cards have special programs in place to help prevent financial identity theft.
Unfortunately, identity theft and financial fraud continue to be an issue in today’s society. Thankfully, now there are a lot of programs out there to help you stay ahead of the game and to help ensure your financial safety. While none of these programs will stop the thieves completely, they are all designed in such a way to stop them quickly and to ensure your financial identity is not permanently compromised and so you can rest easy knowing your money is in good hands.
***Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/intelfreepress/7853146846/in/
