Prevent Identity Theft
Create an Online Social Security Account
With your social security number and other personal information, a criminal can sign-up for social security benefits in your name and have the benefits sent to them. Here is what to do: If you are 62 years-of-age or older and have not created your online social security account, prevent a criminal from doing it before you. Sign-up at www.ssa.gov.
Freeze Credit Reports
A freeze restricts access to your credit reports and should prevent new accounts from being opened in your name. You will have to lift the freezes before you can open a new account. Freezing is highly recommended and is a proven way to protect against new account fraud.
Protect Your Papers
Shred your sensitive trash with a crosscut, micro-cut or diamond- cut shredder. Donât leave outgoing mail with personal information in your mailbox for pickup. Consider signing up for e-delivery of all your financial statements, as this is the more secure way to have documents delivered.
Watch Out for Tricks
Covid Scams
Criminals mutate their methods and try to take advantage of current vulnerabilities. Be wary of unsolicited phone calls, text messages and emails, especially having to do with Covid. You should not provide your social security number or money to people who contact under the guise of Covid, or any crisis.
Account Takeovers
As the term implies, account takeovers happen when someone gets unauthorized access to your online accounts. To prevent this, donât click on links or attachments in emails that you were not expecting or that donât make sense. Always log into accounts by going directly to their websites, not through links.
Wire Transfer Fraud
This occurs when a criminal tricks a victim into wiring money to their bank account. Most commonly, a real estate companyâs email account is hijacked by a hacker, which provides them with information about people who are about to close on a home purchase. Right before closing, the hacker sends an email from the hijacked account to the home buyer instructing them to wire money for the closing to the criminalâs or a muleâs bank account. It can be very difficult to recover this money if it is not discovered very quickly. The FBI reports that home buyers have lost hundreds of millions of dollars every year to this scam. It is important to verify wire transfers with the recipient by phone or in person before sending money.
Protect Your Computer
Beware of Pop-ups
Be cautious of pop-ups. Examples include ones that say you have to download something to see a video or a message that says there are threats detected on your computer. Donât click on anything in these pop-ups including the âXâ inside the pop-up itself. To remove the pop-up safely, hold down three keys: CTL+ALT+DEL (Windows) or CMD+Option+Escape (Mac). Then run your antivirus software to see if there is malware on your computer that caused the pop-up.
Update and Back-up
To stay safe from the latest threats, make sure that your operating system software and antivirus software is updated. Also, back up your files on a regular basis so you can recover if affected by a ransomware attack.
Use Passphrases
A passphrase is composed of a combination of words strung together. Passphrases protect us against two hacks the criminals use to gain access to our accounts. First, brute force attacks, where hackers use powerful programs and computers to guess passwords. Second, credential stuffing where a hacker obtains a password for one site and uses it to hack another site. It is a two for one special! Strong passwords will also keep us safe against these threats, if you use a different one for each account, which unfortunately, not all of us do.
*Source: Retired FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza jefflanza@thelanzagroup.com; www.thelanzagroup.com*
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