10 Tips for Proactively Protecting Personal Info

Prevention Is Productive

I think a huge part of productivity is proactively preventing problems. By taking steps to prevent problems you both free your mind from worry and save the time you would spend resolving a preventable problem.

With the Holiday shopping season upon us, it’s time to think about proactively protecting ourselves from cyber-crime. Cyber-crime is big business that hurts families. It will cost you time to get it resolved. It causes heart-break and frustration.

An Unfortunate Surprise

A few years ago I had a co-worker who lived with a family member. My co-worker had finished college and was pretty excited that she had overcome a mountain of debt both credit cards and student loans.

A few days after Christmas she started receiving phone calls about a past due bill. She received an unfortunate surprise when she discovered the family member that she lived with had used her social security number to obtain a credit card and other charge accounts in her name. She was devastated that someone she trusted would steal from her in this way.

Be Proactive

There is a whole lot you can do to protect yourself from this fairly new criminal. Some of these things are pretty simple and some will take a bit of time and planning. All these suggestions are proactive and will save you a lot of time and headaches if you take the time to do them.

Proactively Protecting Personal Info

Shred everything with your name and personal information on it
Reduce your junk mail by calling 888-5OP-OUT, be sure to OPT out for all members of your household, even your children
Set up the ability to remote wipe your phone in case it is lost or stolen
Don’t click on links in SPAM emails or emails from unknown senders
Memorize your social security number and do NOT carry your card in your wallet or purse, store your card in a secure place
Stop your mail delivery while you are on vacation
Don’t give out any personal information over the phone, you did NOT win that extravagant vacation, ask callers to put you on their do not call list
Opt out of telemarketing calls by calling 888-382-1222
Use cash whenever possible
Frequently change your passwords on everything related to your finances (online bank, utilities, credit card, cell phone, etc.) and any email accounts connected to those accounts.

My co-worker was able to get the debt resolved after proving it was not her debt. Whether it is a family member or not, cyber-criminals can cause you to lose more than money. It will take a lot of time and effort to get each theft resolved and cards replaced. Prevent an unfortunate surprise by taking steps & proactively protecting personal info. Make it difficult for cyber-criminals to do their “work”.