With identity theft on the rise, you need to be your own watchdog. It is very easy for criminals to get your personal data without having to break into your home. Here are some suggestions to help keep your information out of the hands of identity thieves.
Be careful in public places as you punch in your telephone calling card number or credit card number because a criminal may be watching you from a nearby location or listening to your conversation if you give you credit card number over the telephone to a hotel or rental car company.
Properly shred any record bearing you name, address or telephone number e.g. bank statements, before dumping it in trash bin. Some criminals going through your garbage cans can obtain these types of records to get control over accounts in your name and assume your identity. Buy a shredder to discard your personal information and credit card applications you receive in mail. You can buy cross-cut type shredder much cost effectively for approximately $60 - $70. Buy low cost shredders from Amazon
Responding to “spam” unsolicited email requesting your personal data to provide some benefit. With this information, a criminal can take over the victim’s identity to carry out a number of offense: for example, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, false applications for loans and credit cards, fraudulent use of telephone calling cards or any other privileges which the criminal might be denied if he were to use his real name.
Never give out your personal information to others unless you have a reason to trust them.
If a person pretending to be calling from your bank asks for your mother’s maiden name, which is already on file with your bank is a clear indication that the only purpose of such a call is to acquire that information for that person’s personal benefit.
Avoid printing unnecessary information on your bank checks - such as your Social Security number or telephone number.
If someone asks for your personal data to give a credit card or other valuable item, ask them to send you a written application form. If they will, make sure it’s from a well-known company or financial institution. You can also check the status of this company with Better Business Bureau.
Regularly check your financial information for any discrepancy. If you are not getting your statements, there is possibility that these statements are being mailed to another address and someone may be improperly using your account. Immediately inform the situation to your financial institution.
Too many of us give a quick glance to account statements. Closely review these statements and make sure there are no unauthorized withdrawals and charges. If you find such transactions, immediately report them to your financial institution.
Similarly, periodically obtain a copy of your credit report, which should list all banks and accounts under your name.
If not more, you must retain your statements and checks for one year, which you may require to dispute a particular transaction or check.
Opt out - it is the best way to minimize the amount of information you
receive in the mail — especially those pre-approved credit offers and the
blank checks from the credit companies. Opt out so you don’t receive
applications in the first place. You can do so by going to
www.optoutpresceen.com or calling 888-5OPTOUT. When you opt out, you
remove yourself from mail marketing lists. You can request that your bank
not send pre-approved checks, as well. Call the three credit reporting
agency numbers to opt out of pre-approved offers.
Experian: (1-888) 397-3742
Equifax: (1-800) 525-6285
TransUnion: (1-800) 680-7289
Write to the following to get off promotional lists:
Direct Marketing Association
Direct Marketing Association
Mail Preference Service
Telephone Preference Service
P. O. Box 9008
P. O. Box 9014
Farmingdale, NY 11735
Farmingdale, NY 11735
Check credit card statements - check your monthly statements regularly so that you could dispute a charge within 60 days.
Check monthly bank statement - to find out whether you account has any doubtful transaction. Find out what protections your financial institution offers. Many offer a password in place of PII (personally identifiable information), so that people with knowledge of that information cannot access your accounts. Some even offer one-time use credit card numbers for online purchases.
Close unused credit card accounts - to prevent their use without your knowledge.
VeriSign – when you type your personal information, make sure the information gets encrypted when transmitted. Check for the VeriSign logo or the lock at the bottom-right corner of your Web browser window.
Sign your credit card – to match your signature with the receipt.
Ask for EOBs – to make sure that no one is using your medical insurance, ask for Explanation Of Benefits (EOBs) and yearly records from insurance carriers and medical providers.
Limit personal information – to keep your personal information personal by providing limited information on social networking sites. The less you post, the better.
Check your bills – make sure you receive bills regularly, if not, check whether these aren’t being forwarded to another address.
Leaving Purses & wallets in the car – the thieves can access your personal information from your purse or wallet. Never leave them in the car, even if the car is locked.
E-mails or text messages – don’t become victim of a scam, never give personal information in response to e-mails or text messages.
Mailbox – wrong hands can get your personal information through your mailbox; don’t leave your mail in the box overnight.
Get a post office box or a locked mailbox, if you possibly can.
Social Security Number – give it only to your financial institute, your employer and government.
Memorize social security numbers and passwords.
Empty your wallet of all extra credit cards and social security numbers, etc. Do not carry any identifiers you do not need. Don't carry your birth certificate, social security card, or passport, unless necessary.
Credit card receipts – always take these receipts, and don’t leave them behind you.
Ask all financial institutions, doctors' offices, etc., what they do with your private information and make sure that they shred it and protect your information.
Put passwords on all your accounts and do not use your mother's maiden name. Make up a fictitious word.
Get all of your checks delivered to your bank - not to your home address.
Do not put checks in the mail from your home mailbox. Drop them off at a U.S. Mailbox or the U.S. Post Office. Mail theft is common. It's easy to change the name of the recipient on the check with an acid wash.
When you order new credit cards in the mail, or your previous ones have expired, watch the calendar to make sure that you get the card within the appropriate time. If it is not received by a certain date, call the credit card grantor immediately and find out if the card was sent.
Cancel all credit cards that you do not use or have not used in 6 months. Thieves use these very easily - open credit is a prime target.
Do not put your telephone number on your checks.
Get credit cards and business cards with your picture on them.
Do not put your credit card account number on the Internet (unless it is encrypted on a secured site.) Don't put account numbers on the outside of envelopes, or on your checks.
Make a list of all your credit card account numbers and bank account numbers (or photocopy) with customer service phone numbers, and keep it in a safe place. (Do not keep it on the hard drive of your computer if you are connected to the Internet.)
A firewall is necessary to have because it protects you from unwanted malware. Don’t depend entirely on the firewall your Internet service provider (ISP) provides. The ISP firewall provides only limited protection, so it’s better to have your own hardware or software firewall:
This type of firewall is a router or computer and is typically a small device or another computer that can be configured to be a firewall. Software is also included with this type of firewall. You can configure Routers to be run as a firewall. The firewall software program contains the rules to run the hardware firewall.
You can either purchase or download software firewall from the Internet. You can modify the settings from the default settings. Don’t change the default settings if you aren’t sure or really don’t know what you’re doing; otherwise, you may not be able to get on the Internet.
Always update your firewall with the latest versions of the software. Most firewall programs inform you when updates are available. Immediately update your firewall when you get an update notice.
Spyware chase where you go on the Internet. Types of spyware you need to be aware of include:
Adware takes you to other sites on the Internet to sell you products that may fascinate you, based on your past surfing habits.
Malware is malicious software, and spyware might contain malware that can create problems for your computer.
The keylogger program grabs all your keystrokes including all the usernames and passwords you enter. The person then uses that information to log on to your bank account and capture other personal information.
To find and get rid of spyware from your computer, you can get an adware or spyware blocking program (such as Spybot or Ad Ware Personal) that scans and removes spyware. Most antivirus protection software also block adware.
You can get latest adware software for a fee, and can get free programs to block spyware. Download a copy of a spyware blocker program and then set it to perform scans automatically. You can set Windows Defender to automatically scan for spyware. No matter what spyware software you install on your PC, make sure that it performs automatic scans.
Viruses are real harms for your computer. Most viruses include some type of malware that prevents your computer from working properly, to crash, or to wipe out all your data. Several types of viruses are on the Internet with many ways to infect your computer. E-mail attachments are the main source to spread viruses, so don’t open e-mails from people you don’t know.
To prevent your computer from virus infection, install antivirus software on your system. Some antivirus programs are available for a fee, but there are some free antivirus software as well that you can download from the web. Whichever you select, set the software to update automatically to stay current; else, you risk being infected because virus writers are always changing and developing them. Some antivirus programs scan and quarantine adware and spyware as part of their service.
Operating system (OS) updates, also known as patches or hot fixes, play a crucial role in protecting your computer. They usually deal with a specific security hole in the software that can be exploited by those with malicious objective.
Windows Defender for XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 allows you set up automatic updates. It is recommended to use automatic updates because other security features — such as a firewall — won’t help if your OS has security holes.
Systems crash mainly because of an out-dated operating system. For instance, this happened in 2001 when Code Red (a denial-of-service attack) was run on the Internet. A denial-of-service attack causes the server to shut down after giving so many request. It infected and crashed all the computers that didn’t have an update for Microsoft’s Internet Information System (IIS). So make sure that you have all the current OS updates installed on your computer.
If you have more than one user on your system, make sure that you have a strong password for the administrator account. Choose a password that can’t be guessed easily or obtained with a password-cracker program. Password-cracker programs work on two main types of attacks:
Dictionary Attack:
In this type, a program is used that runs through the dictionary and flags words that are used in passwords.
Repetitively tries word combinations of all sorts for passwords to find ones that are used on the system. Companies block this by limiting the number of failed attempts to three. At home this is not the case; the brute force program will continue to run.
It is recommended that you change your administrative password at frequent intervals. Also, turn off the guest account this will help minimize the possibility of someone signing on your computer as a guest.
Follow these guidelines to use strong password:
Never use dictionary words — for example, capital and adore — since the bad guys have tools that can find out your passwords by running dictionary scans.
Use a password that cannot be guessed because it makes sense only to you.
Use a longer (more than 6 characters), such as AfinG$ᐼ, rather than a shorter password, such as simply Afin.
Add special characters — $, &, *, !, and so on — into your password. (See the example above).
Use a passphrase as your password, for example, TgiF would stand for Thank goodness it’s Friday. Add special characters and numbers to make it TgiF$ᐼ. This way you will have a password you can easily remember but which others can’t easily guess.
Change your password at least every 90 days.
Encryption mix up a message into non-readable script and helps protects what’s on your hard drive. You don’t need to encrypt all your files — just those that hold your personal information. You can buy encryption software for your home computer. Without a key no one can open the encrypted files, even if he/she manages to gain access to your computer. The key is a password used to decode the encryption so it can be read.
Identity Pro is one such program you can purchase. It is easy to use and does a good job shielding your personal information.
Note: If you lose your key, you can’t open your own encrypted files and the information will be lost.
Net surfing is risky, but you can make it safer by appropriate Internet
Explorer Security settings through the Control Panel.
Always choose setting which is best for you. If you applied peak setting and
run a firewall, you may be prevented from getting to all web sites. Adjust
your settings as needed by choosing Custom Setting and then selecting what
you want to prevent from accessing your computer.
Consider what files you want to share and make sure that they do not hold
personal information before you make the files available for others to see.
If you are not in a business environment, you can disable hidden share. This
prevents someone from accessing the files remotely. With hidden shares,
files are shared between various computers.
Follow these steps to disable hidden shares in Windows XP, Vista, and 7:
1. Choose Start > Run, and then type regedit and click OK.
This opens the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters
3. Type the value word autosharewks and a value of 0.
4. Restart your computer.
Most of the access to your shared files are blocked by the firewall program. To be safe, you can protect the files by securing a guest account. You can’t turn off the guest account, but XP Home does actually let you disable the guest account because it is an integral part of XP. For Windows 7, you can turn off the guest account. For Vista Home you can’t.
To password-protect the account on XP Home, do the following:
1. Click Start > Run and then typing cmd in the run dialog box.
This is the same for Vista and Windows 7 as well.
2. Type net user guest password. Replace password with a password of your choosing.
The guest account is now password protected which adds another layer of security to your computer.
Follow the simple rules:
• Never open e-mail attachments from unknown users
• Never open attachments you weren’t expecting
Most of these attachments may contain viruses. Although most attachments are
scanned for viruses before you open them, but it’s better not to open the
attachment in the first place.
If you do open an e-mail from an unknown source and it contains a virus,
your antivirus program can help protect you by scanning the attachment for
viruses.
If you open an e-mail from an unknown person, you confirm that person know
that your e-mail is valid and you will likely receive more e-mails from that
person or others if your e-mail account information is shared. To make your
computer safer, don’t open e-mails from people you don’t know.
Use e-mail filter to filter out junk mail no matter what e-mail system you
use at home. E-mail filter means if the person is not in your address book,
the e-mail is sent to the junk mail folder. Most free e-mail systems
automatically do some filtering. Fine-tune your junk e-mail by not accepting
e-mails in your inbox from anyone not in your address book to filters out
the junk and unwanted mail.
