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Safeguarding Your Financial Information and Identity

Tis the Season for Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud

As the holiday shopping season approached, shoppers aren’t the only ones gearing up for the rush. Identity thieves and credit card scammers, always trying to stay a step ahead of you, are ramping up as well. We’ve covered most of the tips for protecting yourself against theft and fraud, but, to ensure your holiday season is a safe one, we’ll repeat the more overlooked steps again:

• Control your receipts. Receipts tend to fly during hectic shopping sprees. Designate a secure place to keep all of your receipts and then dispose of them after reconciling them with your bill.
• Buy yourself an early present – get a shredder. It’s the gift that keeps giving you security. Shred all receipts, bills, and anything with your personal information.
• Look over your shoulder. Someone may be looking back. As tactless and amateurish as it sounds, it’s still the most often used tactic by thieves to steal your pin number at the ATM machine or checkout.
• Monitor your accounts. It may be a good time to subscribe to a monitoring service, or you can do it yourself, checking your accounts regularly for unauthorized purchase.
• Shop securely. When shopping on an unfamiliar site make sure it contains data encryption. The site address have https:// at the beginning.