Below are four tips for avoiding identity theft and fraud.
1. Pay attention to email security.
Use strong passwords for all financial accounts, but especially your email account. If it’s vulnerable, all of your other accounts will be, too. Use an especially secure password and establish two-step verification for your email account.
2. Sign up for a credit monitoring service.
It’s the best way to keep tabs on your credit report. It provides peace of mind in the form of alerts about important changes to your file, including potential signs of identity theft.
3. Monitor all your accounts on line.
Set up online management for all of your financial accounts (e.g., credit cards, loans, Social Security), and keep your phone number, email address and street address current will make them harder for identity thieves to hijack. Establishing alerts for changes to your contact info and other suspicious account activity will help serve as a safeguard.
4. Use common sense online.
Don’t open emails you don’t recognize. Don’t download files from untrustworthy sources. Don’t send account numbers and passwords via email or messenger applications. And don’t enter financial or personal information into websites that lack the “https” prefix in their URLs.
If you have any questions at all, now would be a good time to review your coverage with an agent.
Call: Burns & Cotter, Inc. at 401-421-0100