What are you doing to protect your identity?
Your personal information can be found anywhere, from your social media accounts to your email inbox to your physical mailbox sitting outside of your house. Here are a few tips that you can implement to build up your protection from identity theft, both online and offline.
Online
- Ensure your software is up-to-date. Keep your operating system, web browsers and apps current to protect against the latest malware threats and ensure web pages load properly. Most software can be set to automatically update. Set yours to do so! You need to also stay on top of browser retirements and transitions. For example, the transition of Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge is not automatic and must be done by the consumer to ensure a more secure and modern browsing experience.
- Monitor your account transactions. Check your banking statements when they arrive and review account activity often in online and mobile banking. We suggest signing up for free online statements to simplify this process.
- Check your credit report. You can get a report from each of the credit reporting companies. Every year, for free. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com.
- Update your privacy settings. When is the last time you checked your privacy settings on social media? Take some time to check the settings on each of your social accounts to make sure you’re not publicly displaying any information you wouldn’t want the wrong person to see.
- Look for the lock symbol. When you’re shopping online, submitting an online application, or sending other personal information, check the address bar for the padlock symbol (🔒). This means the information you send will be encrypted.
- Freeze your credit. If you believe your information has been leaked, you can freeze your credit with each of the three major credit bureaus. This will help prevent identity thieves from being able to open new accounts under your name. It is now free to freeze and unfreeze your credit. Keep in mind—if you need to have your credit checked, such as if you’re applying for a loan, unfreezing your credit may take some time, since you’ll have to contact each credit bureau.
- Use account alerts. Setting up account alerts and notifications are a great way to stay up-to-date on your finances and account activity. With online and mobile banking, you can choose from a wide variety of alerts including when a deposit has been posted, low balance alerts, or when an overdraft occurs on your account. It’s also great way to get immediate information on any suspicious activity on your accounts.
Offline
- Shred it. Don’t throw out documents containing your personal information or account information. Familiarize yourself with what documents to shred so your information isn’t hanging out on the curbside where anyone could get ahold of it.
- Lock your documents. If you don’t already have one, get a lockable container or file cabinet to secure and protect your physical financial documents and records.
- Hold your mail. Going out of town? Putting your mail on hold is an easy alternative to asking the neighbors to grab it for you. Through the USPS Hold Mail Service, you can make sure that potentially vulnerable information isn’t sitting unguarded in your mailbox while you’re out of town.
Scams and identity theft are a harsh reality of our increasingly connected world. Knowledge is power when it comes to fraud prevention, and the more you know about the latest scams the better. You can protect yourself – but it does require always paying attention to the information you share online, on the phone, and in person.
Seasons Federal Credit Union
DISCLAIMER:
Financial institutions, including Seasons Federal Credit Union, will never send you emails or call you on the phone to request personal information. The only exception to this is to verify your identity when you call us directly.