Recently CU Insight published five ways to lower your risk of identity theft. These are a few easy tips to keep yourself more secure! Check them out below!
Skip the public Wi-Fi:
Don’t use public wifi especially if you’re shopping online, logging into your financial institution, or accessing other sensitive sites. If you must get online when in public places, only visit websites with HTTPS encryption. To prevent your smartphone from searching for hotspots, don’t forget to turn off the automatic Wi-Fi function.
Enable security functions on your phone, computer/laptop, and tablets:
This is particularly important if you have passwords stored or apps that link to your financial institutions.
Ignore unsolicited requests for personal information:
No legitimate business, organization or government entity will ever email, text, call or stop by your house personally to collect your name, birth date, social security number, credit card, checking or savings account numbers.
Monitor your credit report and banking accounts:
You can order one free credit report per year from all three credit reporting agencies. Being aware of your balances, purchases, any new accounts opened can go a long way in identifying compromised information quickly. You should be reviewing your statements weekly and don’t just look for questionable big ticket purchases. Some fraudsters like to run “tests” with smaller charges before they go for larger ones. It’s also a good idea to set up automated alerts for transactions over a certain amount.
Get e-statements:
You’ll not only be helping the environment, you’ll also reduce the chances of a thief swiping your mail and gaining access to your personal information.
Shred, shred, shred:</strong
Again very basic, yet effective. If you insist on paper statements, then be sure to shred them all.
For more tips and information like this check out our fraud protection center.