BBB Tips: How to protect yourself against identity theft
(WHNT) – Falling victim to identity theft can be a scary thought, but there are ways to keep yourself from becoming a victim.
According to Karen Reeves with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of North Alabama, scammers can pretend to be you and commit many crimes if they have enough of your personal information.
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Those crimes can include false applications for loans and credit cards and withdrawing money from your bank account.
They can also sell your information to others on the internet.
To keep their crimes under the radar, they keep the bills and statements for new accounts from being sent to your address. By the time you notice what’s happening, the scammer may have already done substantial damage to your assets and credit.
To spot this kind of scam early, one tip is to look for unexplained withdrawals, charges and accounts.
The BBB suggests reviewing your bank account and credit card statements regularly to ensure you see anything suspicious.
You can also set up automatic alerts on your accounts, so you get a notification every time a transaction is made.
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Another tip is to check your credit reports regularly for unauthorized inquiries and accounts.
According to the BBB, in the United States, you can check your credit report with each of the three major credit bureaus once per year at annualcreditreport.com. The BBB suggests spacing these three checks out throughout the year to ensure you can spot something wrong quickly.
To protect yourself from this scam, be careful with your personal information.
Shredding documents that contain your bank account information, social security and social insurance numbers, and other personal information (including credit card applications, insurance forms, financial statements, health forms, and bills from utilities and phone services).
The BBB also says you should secure personal documents at home to protect them from roommates, outside help or contractors who may be in and out of your home.
Watch out for phishing attempts, which can come through texts, emails, social media messages and even phone calls.
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Reeves said you should be wary of any unsolicited communication asking you for personal information.
The BBB has tips for protecting yourself against hackers as well:
Use strong passwords. Avoid your birth date, children’s names or birth dates, mother’s maiden name, the last four digits of your Social Security number or obvious passwords (like ‘password’ or ‘123456’).
Change passwords frequently.
Use different passwords for each online account or online.
Be careful about the types of information you share online, especially if it’s information that can be used to get past security questions on your accounts (your first car, first pet’s name, city where you were born).
This weekend, the BBB of North Alabama and AARP Alabama will wrap up their final Shred Day events for the season.
Decatur Shred Day is Saturday, May 4, 2024, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at BComing Church, 607 14th St. SE in Decatur.
This event will include free document shredding (limited to three kitchen-size trash bags or three file storage boxes), electronic recycling (free for items under 40 pounds; $10 fee for each plasma and flatscreen TV; no appliances or large back TVs/monitors) and drug take-back services (no needles).
Cullman Shred Day is also Saturday, May 4, 2024 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. It is happening at King Edward Plaza, 1731 2nd Ave SW in Cullman.
That event will only be accepting paper documents for shredding, with a limit of three 13-gallon trash bags or three bank boxes.
For information on how to stop identity theft and/or recover from it, click here.
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