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Britt Erica Tunick is an award winning financial journalist who has spent the past 17 years writing about virtually every aspect of finance. She has mastered the art of boiling down complicated financial topics for readers to understand. |
Protecting online passwords, setting up alerts on credit and debit cards and updating your anti-virus software will help protect you from identity theft. Simple Ways to Protect Your Identity By Britt Erica Tunick The unfortunate reality is that identity theft has become a common occurrence and data thieves are always looking for information they can use to steal identities. Given this reality, there are a few simple things you should do and be aware of when it comes to protecting your identity. In an increasingly electronic world, it should come as no surprise that most identity theft now occurs online. From data breaches of company records, to sensitive information exchanged within e-mails, there are countless opportunities for thieves to steal personal information. Since most of us have critical personal information stored electronically from passwords, to credit card or account numbers and even our social security numbers, it is important to remember that there are multiple ways thieves can access your information. While it is likely that you have security virus protection software installed on your computer, if you are a laptop, tablet or smart phone user, it is equally important to make sure access to all your devices is password protected and that your password isn’t something obvious. Instead, passwords should be complex and should be different for every account you have. They should also be changed frequently. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the approaches thieves use to obtain your personal information aren’t always obvious. If you are ever notified of a data breach at any company you have done business with that has your personal information or even your credit card number, do not respond to any request to verify your account information. Instead, call the company any such request is supposed to have come from to verify that a data breach is legitimate. If you find out that you have been the victim of a data breach you should set up fraud alerts on all your credit cards and contact the three major credit bureaus to have your social security number flagged for potential abuse. Another simple thing you can do is to set up alerts on all your accounts so that you are notified of any suspicious activity. While most credit card companies now send these on their own, ensuring that all your accounts have active alerts is a simple way to make sure you are immediately informed about any potential hack into your information. Using credit cards instead of debit cards is another way to protect against theft. Although most credit card companies insure against fraudulent card activity and usually don’t hold card holders liable for fraudulent purchases, that isn’t always the case with debit cards. Getting money back that has been stolen from your bank account can be time consuming and you may not be able to get reimbursed for the full amount stolen from your account. |
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