Protecting Your Wealth from Theft During a Crappy Economy

I had a very interesting conversation over lunch last week. Standing in line at a local fast food restaurant with a client who works in law enforcement, I placed my order and opened my wallet to find two one dollar bills, a fifty dollar bill, and my debit card. I groaned. “Is it easier for you if I pay with a fifty or my debit card?” I asked the pimply faced teen behind the counter. “The debit card,” he replied. “Definitely the debit card. If you pay with a fifty, I have to take your fingerprint.” My fingerprint, really?

The clerk went on to explain that with the unemployment rate in the area sky high and the continuation of the crappy economy, the store had experienced a rash of people trying to pass counterfeit bills. It had become such an epidemic that the new policy was to collect a fingerprint and log the serial numbers of every bill larger than a twenty that graced the cash drawer.

During lunch, my client and I talked about how the area had changed due to the economic situation recently. Credit card thefts, arsons, break-ins, auto thefts, and murder/suicides in the area were all on the rise, with the largest jumps noted in credit card fraud and suicides. Having experienced credit card fraud personally in the past, I asked him what he recommends the public do to protect their wealth against theft in such a crappy economy. Here are some tips you can put to use to protect yourself.

1. Don’t shop online with your credit card. The average Joe doesn’t know nearly enough about encryption and security measures to protect his credit card number from being stolen during an online transaction. If you must shop online, use a third party service, such as PayPal, to complete your transactions.

2. Do your banking in person. Online and telebanking might be convenient, but they also provide an opportunity for hacking thieves to swipe your account information. If you must use telebanking, do so from a landline (non cordless) phone to stay safe. Anyone with a police scanner and a little know-how can tune into your conversations made on a cordless or cellular phone.

3. Safeguard your social security number. Don’t opt to put your social security number on your driver’s license and personal checks. If a company asks you for your SS number, ask them why before giving it out. Some companies simply use this number for identification purposes because it saves them from having to develop an internal identification system. This also makes it easy for a would-be thief to make off with your personal information, take out a loan in your name, or steal your identity. Only companies that will be doing a credit check, or securing payment (such as a rental business) should have access to your social security number. Otherwise, tell them it’s off limits for security reasons.

4. Shred all personal documents. Any receipt with your credit card, banking, or investment information on it holds the potential to become a security issue if it finds its way into the hands of the wrong person.

5. Fill in all blanks on every credit card receipt you turn in. If you’re not leaving a tip, draw a line through the blank so no one else can add charges to the receipt after you leave, an always take a copy with you for your records. You’ll need this copy later to help dispute your claims that a charge is invalid.

Protecting yourself and your finances from fraud is made even more difficult during a recession since many thieves become desperate and the number of thieves seem to multiply exponentially. Educate yourself on how to foil fraud artists and thieves. Many credit card and investment companies offer information about protecting your wealth free of charge. Check with your company today to begin protecting your money when thefts are on the rise.

Photo Credit: Don Hankins

Tagged as: Credit Cards, Money Management, Wealth

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Identity Theft Solutions: Free Ways To Protect Your Identity

We’re all seeking identity theft solutions. The fact is, you can deal with identity theft either after the fact or in a proactive fashion. Of course, it’s always preferable to protect your identity before anything unfortunate happens and the good news is that there are ways you can do this for free or for low cost. If you want to prevent identity theft, it may be a good idea to scope out what your actual risks are of becoming a victim.

Interestingly, the credit industry has a way of gauging our creditworthiness via our credit scores. But what if there’s a way, using scores as well, to determine our risk of becoming an ID theft victim? With so much information about identity theft protection services out there, it can be difficult to distinguish among them. Here’s a comparison of three different types of ID scores — the identity score, identity theft score, and the identity threat score. To be honest, these scores may be overkill, but there are folks who feel the need to look into them.

Because of the threat of fraud, a number of companies are looking for ways to verify our identities before doing business with us. According to Smart Money, the use of identity scores are on the rise.

Instead of reflecting the particulars of your financial history the way a credit report does, the identity score attempts to determine that you’re actually the person you say you are when you’re engaging in business transactions. You may see your identity score mentioned when applying for loans, credit cards, or other types of credit.

Typically, identity score services will seek out information about you from public and private records. If you’ve changed your address, name, or other factors recently, it may increase your identity score. You should also scan your credit reports for errors such as incorrect names, Social Security numbers, and accounts as these errors can drag down your identity score.

If you suspect you’re at risk of identity theft, then it might be worth it to track down your identity score. Let’s say you leave your wallet in a cab. A month or so later, you check on your identity score and find out that someone applied for a new credit card using information from your driver’s license. Seeing the higher credit score can help you take measures to prevent more damage to your credit history.

One company that offers free identity scores is My ID Score. You’ll need to provide some personal information so My ID Score can do their research on you, then give you your score. You can check your score twice every 14 days, which is useful, because your information can change over time.

Some companies will call your identity score by a different name, like an identity theft score. Each scoring company may have different tools to analyze your personal score, which is why you may encounter a different range of scores.

Some credit score monitoring services may include an identity theft score. It may be worth checking this list to determine if they have this type of score available.

Be aware that some outfits use the terms “identity theft score” and “identity score” interchangeably. And as mentioned, it may be just another way for the credit industry to get you to open your wallet in exchange for giving you a sense of security and peace of mind. Make sure you know what kind of service you are subscribing to when you check out credit monitoring services. Some have better id theft protection features than do others.

As many things in the credit industry go, you’ll find yet another proprietary score that purports to give you ID protection. The Identity Threat Score is a product from TrustedID. It’s a tool you can use to determine if you’re at risk of identity theft. A lower score is preferable to a higher score, which may indicate that you’ve already been compromised. Scores can range from 0 to 500. To determine your particular score, the service scans a wide array of resources like public and private databases to find your personal, credit, and financial information.

After analyzing the data to present your Identity Threat Score, the service offers advice to safeguard your identity. You’ll be able to see your score each time you log into your TrustedID account.

For those interested in a credit monitoring service that also offers identity theft insurance as part of the package, do check out this list. These are not free services, but you may decide that the peace of mind is worth the cost. Note that all of these services have a free trial period.

There are, of course, some things we can do to deter identity theft on our own. Here are some ideas:

1. Each month, you should read the statements for your bank, credit card, mortgage, and other financial accounts. Contact customer service if you detect any mistakes or unusual charges.

2. Take time to shred personal documents, if you’re going to discard papers with sensitive personal information like your Social Security number or driver’s license number.

3. Take advantage of AnnualCreditReport.com to pull your credit report for free once a year. Take action to correct any errors or improve your credit history before you get a personal loan or apply for credit cards so you won’t face higher interest rates.

4. When you’re online, be careful about giving away your personal information. Be wary of the websites to which you provide your email and password, even if it seems like they only want to import your contacts. You don’t want to hand off your personal information to a phisher, so don’t click links in email from people you don’t know or trust.

While checking out the FTC, I found OnGuard Online, a quick online game that tests your knowledge of identity theft facts. It’s something that you may also want to take a look at!

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