The growth in technology has led to the rise of online threats such as identity theft, hacking and email scams. Identity thieves snoop around looking for gullible customers who have no idea that an anonymous person is impersonating them and emptying their bank accounts. Therefore, it is imperative that you protect your identity and always be on the alert for any suspicious activity that might harm you.
Discussed below are the top 3 ways to minimize the chances of identity theft and safeguard your hard earned money:
1- Establish a reliable fraud alert system
Monitor your financial accounts and monetary transactions with applications such as BillGuard, True Link Financial and other services that use crowdsourced data to establish a reliable fraud alert system. These programs are free and easy to use. Contact any of the major credit bureaus such as Equifax or TransUnion that’ll help you set an active fraud alert system for identifying potential thieves and hackers. You can also freeze your credit card and get regular credit report updates to minimize the risk of identity theft.
2- Always change the password
One of the best ways to reduce the possibility of identity theft and online frauds is keeping all your personal files and private information encrypted, and password protected. Use different passwords for everything; this way even if one of your accounts get hacked all the other ones are safe. There are many applications such as LastPass, Dashlane and Sticky Password to manage and store all your passwords in one place. You can even create a unique password algorithm for further securing your identity.
3- Never disclose your private information
Hackers today resort to some cunning ways to steal your information such as PINs, account number, social security number. They then impersonate you and file a fraudulent tax return claiming the money that rightfully belongs to you. The IRS has been taking some serious steps to detect such scammers and put an end to identity theft. On your part, you can keep all your private details encrypted and refrain from disclosing it to any website or company without being sure of its credibility.
The bottom line
Anyone can fall prey to the dangers of identity theft. Safeguarding your identity is your responsibility, take substantial steps to ensure that all your private information is safe.
