Tis the season, for the holiday run around. Shopping fun, giving, receiving, but most people don’t want to be be giving away items such as their social security numbers, credit card numbers or bank account information. With everything tightening up, the economy becoming tight, keeping your credit in check has to be one of the most important things you should do. Identity theft is still on the rise, and the numbers still grow. It’s reported that 1 in 4 households are victimized by identity theft. Below are tips as to how to be safe this holiday season.
- Do not leave your bags/purses unattended.
- Carry purses with short straps and keep your purse as close to you as possible
- Carry your wallet in another pocket other than your back pocket
- Know your surroundings and do not let yourself become destracted with the world around you
People are on a very fast move around the holiday. If you find yourself needing to go to the ATM machine follow these tips below:
- Have your plan already known before you go to the ATM. Make sure you know excatly what transactions you want to make so you can make them quickly
- For walk up ATM’s use your body as a sheild when you are using your PIN number and retreiving your cash
- View the surroundings around the ATM before you use it
Receipts are important to maitain and hold on to you around this time of year.
- Keep all reciepts from purchases in a safe place all together. If you paid with credit card, check your statements monthly
- Shred (at the very least tear/cut) all reciepts you do not want
Cyber buying is extremely popular and sometimes easier. Cyber buying can be easier than fighting the crowds, looking for a parking space, hot stores, etc. Here are some tips that you can do to help protect yourself if you decide to shop online.
- Install the latest anti-virus, anti-spyware on your computer
- Don’t open emails that you don’t know who the sender is or if you do not have an account with the company
- Use safe, secure, trusted, valid websites. Trusted eCommerce websites will have a lock on the top and will begin with https:// instead of http://
- If you are getting rid of an old computer, delete the contents on the hard drive first
If you have any questions regarding this information please contact me>>