A few weeks after I came back from my firm’s national conference in San Diego, I found that someone was hitting my credit card with Doordash purchases in California. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. Fortunately, this type of fraud/theft is annoying but not a big deal. Simply report the fraudulent charges to the credit card company. They refund the charges, cancel the card and issue a new one. Inconvenient to search for and updated any automatic charges but ... no money lost.
That isn’t always the case. For true identity theft victims, the losses can be substantial and untangling the mess that gets created takes time, effort and money. So how do we protect ourselves? Against these types of threats it makes sense to play offense and defense.
Offense= protecting your information as much as possible
Defense= assume information will be stolen so contain the damage
Protecting your information/identity comes down to being vigilant. Some key Do’s and Don’t’s as ways to play good Offense:
- Do: Use different passwords on every site and use strong passwords; a password helper that encrypts your passwords on your machine will be helpful here.
- Do: Setup a routine to change your password regularly on key sites including your email service, financial partners, etc.
- Do: Use multi-factor authentication on key sites; yes, it takes more time to login but having that second step makes it much harder for someone else to login even if they have your password.
- Do: Keep your credit cards, checkbooks (ask your parents what that is!), etc. in a safe spot and don’t let them out of your control. For example, many restaurants have shifted to pay terminals at the table rather than the server taking the card in the back to process.
- Do: Use a wallet on your phone rather than a card itself.
- Don’t: Never click on emails; always navigate and login to the site yourself.
- Don’t: Never give personal information over the phone unless you have initiated the call to a known and verified number.
Ronald Reagan popularized the phrase “trust but verify”; in this case the best strategy is “verify and never trust”.
When my daughter turned old enough to be online, we gave her some advice that is applicable here: “Assume everything you do online is visible.” The analogy here is to assume that someone will have your personal information, your credit card number, your username/password, your bank account number, etc. So if we assume somebody has your stuff, here are some key ways to play good Defense and limit any fallout:
- Check your statements/activity regularly. You should review transactions hitting your bank account, your credit cards, etc. The more often you check, the earlier you will notice any unusual activity and can report it.
- Review your credit report regularly. You can get free reports from all three of the main credit bureaus (Experian, Transunion and Equifax) at annualcreditreport.com. Setup a schedule to check Experian every January, Transunion every May and Equifax every September (for example) to spread them out. See if you recognize all the accounts or notice any suspicious inquiries.
- (Optional) Sign up for credit monitoring. There are many credit monitoring services, including those offered by the credit bureaus themselves. They really aren’t doing much more than #1 and #2 above, but if it gives you peace of mind, it isn’t going to hurt anything.
- Better yet, Freeze your credit files. Most of us are not applying for new credit daily so there really is no reason for your credit report file to be open as the default. Create a login at each of the credit bureaus and you can easily Freeze/Thaw your credit file with a simple toggle switch. If you know you are leasing a new car (for example), ask them which credit bureau they will use, thaw that file to allow the credit check and then freeze it again. With a freeze in place, normal activity can continue but nobody (including you) can open a new account.
When it comes to managing the security of your information, you need both offensive and defensive strategies. Play both sides of the ball to greatly reduce the risk. Remember that criminals are often looking for the easiest mark and will move on quickly if things are harder or of limited return. Do these things and you won’t be the target. What’s that old joke? You don’t have to outrun the bear, you just have to run faster than the other guy!
Image credit: mohamed hassan, Creative Commons - CC0 license