Your personal details and credit history are the keys to your financial life. Taking a few proactive steps to lock down your personal information makes it significantly harder for scammers to open fake accounts, impersonate you, or steal your hard-earned savings.
- Be careful what you share on social media: Avoid posting real-time vacation updates, your exact birth year, or fun online quizzes that ask for details like your pet’s name or high school. Scammers gather these small pieces of information to guess the answers to your bank’s security questions or figure out when your home is empty. Keeping personal details off public feeds protects your identity.
- Freeze your credit profile: Place a free security freeze on your credit reports with the three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and EquiFax). Freezing your credit prevents anyone from opening a new credit card, loans, or bank accounts in your name without your permission – even if a scammer manages to steal your Social Security Number.
- Set up real-time transaction alerts: Turn on mobile app notifications or text alerts for any spending on your debit or credit cards. Getting an instant alert every time money leaves your accounts means that you will spot unauthorized charges the exact moment they happen, allowing you to lock your card right away.
- Only send money to people you know and trust: Never transfer funds or send wire payments to someone you have only communicated with online, no matter how convincing or emotional their story sounds. Online romance scammers and fake charity callers build quick emotional trust to trick people into sending money. Once sent, peer-to-peer or wire transfers are very difficult to reverse.
- Never pay strangers with gift cards or cryptocurrency: Refuse any request to settle a bill, pay a fee, or send money using store gift cards or crypto ATMs. Legitimate businesses, government agencies, and utility companies will never demand payment via gift cards or cryptocurrency. These payment methods are virtually untraceable and impossible to recover once given away.
- Watch out for fake online shopping sites: Before buying from a new store, check that the web address starts with https:// and stick to sites that accept standard credit cards. Fraudulent shopping sites lure buyers in with huge discounts, but they lack secure payment encryption or only accept untraceable payments like wire transfers or gift cards. Shopping on secure platforms keeps your payment card data safe.