个人数字安全防护指南：2016年全面升级

发布时间：2024-11-20 01:34

数字密码安全策略，保护个人信息 #生活技巧# #工作学习技巧# #数字技能提升#

Protecting Your Credit Accounts & Debit Cards

If a criminal wants to get your money quickly and easily, he or she will target your debit and

credit cards. Before the popularity of the internet, this required physical access to your wallet

or purse. A victim would know right away that a card should be cancelled and the damage

would be minimal if caught early. A criminal would risk capture by attempting charges on the

cards in person. Today, possession of your cards is not necessary. The internet has created a

new avenue to obtain and spend the money in your accounts. This may occur without any

indication of problems on your end. This chapter will present the tools that you need to

protect your credit and make you practically invulnerable to identity theft.

Free Credit Report

Before I discuss the techniques that will protect you, you should take a good look at your

current credit report. This will identify all of your current open accounts and may identify any

problems or fraudulent activity. There are several websites that offer a free credit report. Most

of these will try to convince you to sign up for premium offers and never offer an actual free

credit report. The only official government supported and truly free credit report website is at

annualcreditreport.com. This website allows you to view your credit report, without any fee,

once yearly from each of the three credit bureaus. This means that you actually can get three

free credit reports every year. Instead of viewing all three reports at the same time, create a

schedule to spread out the viewings. I recommend the following.

ü In January, connect to annualcreditreport.com and request a free report from Equifax.

ü In May, request a free report from Experian.

ü In September, request a free report from TransUnion.

These months can be adjusted to the current time of the year. The important element is that

you are continuously viewing your credit report throughout the year. The process for viewing

your report varies by state. Annualcreditreport.com will explain every step. When you receive

your report, pay close attention to the following areas: