How safe is your personal information?
You have probably heard about the data breach involving Target stores last Christmas or more recently Home Depot, you may have even been one of those impacted. If so, most of the banks have done a good job of replacing cards and limiting consumer losses. We have also gotten a couple of calls at home recently from people purporting to be from our bank, wanting to “verify a potentially fraudulent transaction” In all 3 events, we came out OK, but it was still a wake-up call to just how good the fraudsters are getting at the game.
In the case of the mysterious bank phone calls, the caller had the first set of numbers from the card, but needed confirmation of the last 4 card digits and the security code on the back. Luckily my wife has a pretty good sense of suspicion and the caller asked enough questions that something just didn’t seem right. So she did the smart thing and hung up, called the bank and let them know what happened. The bank service representative was able to verify that the transaction the caller claimed was on her card did not exist, and just to be safe they reissued her a new card. –But I also took the opportunity to check our credit report just to verify there were no other shenanigans.
It is recommended that you check your credit report at least once a year. You don’t have to utilize one of the “free” credit report companies you see advertised. They typically require your credit card information and give limited information in the free report unless you sign up for a monthly subscription. Just go directly to AnnualCreditReport.com to request a copy of your. They will provide you a report from all of the 3 credit reporting agencies upon request once a year.
Bankrate.com has a short quiz to see how safe your financial information is, and gives some pointers to protect yourself and be on the lookout for fraud. Your financial information is as valuable as cold hard cash and can literally cost you a fortune to get back if stolen. Luckily there are a few minor, relatively easy practices that will help you protect it.
John Davidson, CFP®
In the case of the mysterious bank phone calls, the caller had the first set of numbers from the card, but needed confirmation of the last 4 card digits and the security code on the back. Luckily my wife has a pretty good sense of suspicion and the caller asked enough questions that something just didn’t seem right. So she did the smart thing and hung up, called the bank and let them know what happened. The bank service representative was able to verify that the transaction the caller claimed was on her card did not exist, and just to be safe they reissued her a new card. –But I also took the opportunity to check our credit report just to verify there were no other shenanigans.
It is recommended that you check your credit report at least once a year. You don’t have to utilize one of the “free” credit report companies you see advertised. They typically require your credit card information and give limited information in the free report unless you sign up for a monthly subscription. Just go directly to AnnualCreditReport.com to request a copy of your. They will provide you a report from all of the 3 credit reporting agencies upon request once a year.
Bankrate.com has a short quiz to see how safe your financial information is, and gives some pointers to protect yourself and be on the lookout for fraud. Your financial information is as valuable as cold hard cash and can literally cost you a fortune to get back if stolen. Luckily there are a few minor, relatively easy practices that will help you protect it.
John Davidson, CFP®