Protecting Your Identity - What To Do And What NOT To Do

When it comes to protecting your identity, and your personal information, there are several proactive and preventative steps you can take.

Below are several things that you should DO, and several things that you should NOT do:

Things You Should Do:

✅️ Regularly log into all of your online profiles where you pay bills to view any alerts, notifications, or updates you may have and to make sure your personal and billing information are up to date. This includes where you pay your utility bills, make mortgage payments, have a bank account, and any website you use for making payments, such as car payments.

✅️ Monitor the title to your home and any other property you might own.

✅️ Monitor transactions in all of your financial accounts, including banks, credit unions, retirement accounts, 401ks, IRAs, and more.

✅️ Use a VPN – a virtual private network – when you go online, especially when you make online payments. This will help to protect your privacy and personal information when you do online shopping, do your banking online, or even just using your favorite website browser lime Chrome or Firefox.

✅️ Secure your computer with antivirus software. The Zander Elite plan includes Ultra Antivirus, which protects your computer from viruses, malware, trojans, and more.

✅️ Make sure to create strong, secure passwords for all of your online accounts. Make sure that each password is at least 12-15 characters long, make sure the characters are a random assortment of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. The following is also VERY IMPORTANT:

• DO NOT USE EASY-TO-REMEMBER WORDS OR PHRASES – makes them easy to hack.

• DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD ON MULTIPLE SITES.

• MAKE SURE TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS EVERY 12-24 MONTHS – makes them even harder to hack.

✅️ Use a password manager. A password manager allows you to create, encrypt, and store passwords in one secure location.

✅️ Use an identity theft monitoring and protection service like Zander. This allows you to get real-time alerts sent to your phone or email. That way, you can be sure to stay on top of things.

✅️ Take advantage of annualcreditreport.com’s current offer of allowing free, weekly access to your credit reports from all 3 bureaus.

Things You SHOULD NOT Do:

🚫 DO NOT download email attachments from unknown email senders. It could be loaded with so.e kind of virus that scans your computer or phone for important personal information.

🚫 DO NOT click links in texts from unknown senders. Same as above. – could be liaded with a virus and then – poof! – your bank account is empty or a large loan has been given to someone in your name.

🚫 DO NOT give sensitive personal information out over the phone. Government agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the IRS, USCIS, and others, will NEVER call you to ask for personal or financial information.

🚫 DO NOT fall for a gift card scam. A legitimate business will never ask you to pay for goods or services with a gift card. If you are ever asked to pay for some product or service, such as for a new computer, some software, to fix your cell phone, etc., with gift cards, DON’T DO IT, because it’s a scam.

🚫 These are some of the primary things that you need to do to protect your personal identity. DON’T BE LAZY! Make sure to be diligent and do these things regularly. Diligence is a great protection against identity theft, and slacking off ends up being a big threat to your ID.