How Checking your Credit Reports May Prevent Identity Theft

April 26th, 2010 Bernz Posted in CREDIT PROTECTION, IDENTITY THEFT, IDENTITY THEFT PROTECTION No Comments »

There are those people that check their credit card statement every month, and there are those that check only here and there, or do not even bother at all.  Why is it worth checking your credit card report?  Identity theft is on the rise in the US, checking your credit card report is a very quick and simple way to prevent suspicious activities.  You may think it won’t happen to you, but the increase in identity theft is increasing by the minute.  In recent years, credit card identity theft has taken over 10 million victims in a single year alone.

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Identity theft can take a criminal only a few minutes to achieve, in contrast, it can take months to settle a credit card fraud dispute, so it pays to check your own credit card report for a few minutes or to get a professional service to do it for you, especially if you use credit cards often.  Credit card reports can be accessed free of charge from banking institutions at least once a year.  The things to look out for are any charges on your credit card that you did not incur, or any odd locations or companies you usually do not purchase from.  Most times you may not be liable for the losses, however, debit card accounts generally have less protection against identity fraud, and may be liable for any losses. Read the rest of this entry »

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How to Protect your Personal Information

July 12th, 2009 Bernz Posted in CREDIT PROTECTION, IDENTITY THEFT, IDENTITY THEFT PROTECTION, IDENTITY THEFT SECURITY, LIFELOCK, ONLINE IDENTITY THEFT, PHISHING SCAMS No Comments »

In today’s technologically blessed age, it is possible for hackers to collect your personal information with utmost ease. They can not only collect but share your information with others in the shortest possible time. Although there are federal laws to prevent such incidents but the overwhelming increase in identity theft highlights the need of more sophisticated strategies.

personal-info

Identity theft is one of the biggest issues in America, both in digital and physical world. Actually, most of these incidents take place when people do not pay attention to specific points. Read the rest of this entry »

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Credit Freeze or Fraud Alert?

July 1st, 2009 Bernz Posted in CREDIT FREEZE, CREDIT PROTECTION, FRAUD ALERT, IDENTITY THEFT, IDENTITY THEFT BREACHES, INTERNET SECURITY No Comments »

Credit freeze, like fraud alert can be one of the important devices to prevent the attack of identity theft. With the upsurge of identity theft, not only credit freeze fraud alerts are used as protectionism but also credit freeze is placed as a safeguard.

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Many baffle themselves with question that what is a credit freeze and what are the benefits associated.  Moreover, at times the conception of fraud alert protection is also mixed up with credit freeze. Credit freeze and fraud alert are totally two different protection tools for identity theft, and should not be confused.

Credit freeze

A credit freeze also known as credit lock, where you require paying for totally locking your credit. This states that no lender will have access to your individual credit report. This has been available by the bureaus in all 50 states. In case, you want to state an application for credit, you need to ask the credit agency to terminate the credit freeze. It is only after that, the lender will be able to gain access to the credit report. Afterwards the credit freeze can be reinstated. Read the rest of this entry »

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Top 5 Ways to Protect Your Credit Cards From Identify Thieves

June 5th, 2009 Bernz Posted in CREDIT CARD FRAUD, CREDIT PROTECTION, IDENTITY THEFT No Comments »

In trying to safeguard your credit card details, you will need to be more careful on how you use it. Not all businesses, especially those on the internet, are genuine. Identity theft cases are on the rise these days and the following precautions have to be taken if one wants to protect his or her credit card from these personal information thieves.

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Get your credit report regularly
Having full knowledge on how your expenses are faring will allow you to note any irregular or malicious expenditures on your credit card. Be sure to receive your reports from your creditors on regular intervals for easy monitoring of credit. Report any errors to your creditor and solve them to avoid running into debts that you did not anticipate. Report any malicious and unauthorized use of your credit card by known or unknown persons to the authorities.

Don’t share your credit knowledge
How much you are worth should be your own secret. Sharing your monetary status with people exposes you to the risk of being an identity theft target. Read the rest of this entry »

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