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These days we can conduct most of our financial business online and on our phones. Doing so, however, means we need to protect ourselves from potential fraud. Whether you are reviewing transactions, paying bills, sending money to a friend, or giving travel dates to your credit card company, here are 10 things you can do to help protect your identity and fight fraud.
1) Use strong passwords. Forget using family and pet names, your address, even book and movie titles. These are too easy to hack. Avoid patterns and strings of consecutive numbers and letters. Again, these won’t thwart hackers. Instead, use at least 12 characters. The longer the password, the harder it is to crack. Use random combinations of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols, or string together random words into a nonsense sentence.
2) Create a unique password for each online account, including shopping sites. With so many long, difficult passwords, it is okay to write them down. Just keep written passwords well hidden. Under your mouse pad won’t do.
3) Use a password manager. These computer programs keep track of all your complex passwords and will even generate them for you. You use one strong password to access the password manager. Consumer Reports mentions LastPass and 1Password as good options.
4) Sign up for account alerts. Available with many banks and credit card companies, you can sign up to receive notification emails or texts about activity in your accounts. To set this up, log on to the website and type into the search function “account alerts.”
5) Use a VPN. We all know we shouldn’t conduct any financial transactions over Wi-Fi in public places.  If you need to, however, you can use a virtual public network (VPN). IVPN offers a paid service. The Opera web browser offers a free VPN.
6) Set up two-step verification. Also called two-factor authentication, more and more companies offer this additional layer of protection. Once two-step verification is enabled, when you log on to a site, you will need to enter a set of numbers that you receive via email or text. Should someone steal your password, the thief would need to have both your password and your computer or phone to access your account online. To set this up, log on to a website and type into the search function “two step verification,” “two-factor authentication” or “2FA.” You can also go to www.twofactorauth.org to see a partial list of businesses that offer this.
7) Dedicate one web browser for online financial transactions. Use another browser for everything else.
8) Click on “Log out” or “Sign Out” and close the browser when you leave a financial website or close your mobile banking app. Remaining logged on to the bank website leaves an opening for someone else to access your data.
9) Keep your account information up to date. If a company needs to contact you about suspicious activity, you want it to be able to reach you.  That said, if you are contacted by a financial company asking you to give out your personal or account information, don’t respond. Instead, look up the company’s phone number and call to verify.
10) Review your statements regularly for accuracy and suspicious transactions.
While these actions can’t guarantee your passwords and personal information won’t be hacked, they will help thwart online thieves.
This blog is published to provide you with general information only, and is not intended to provide specific or comprehensive advice.  Money Care, LLC encourages individuals to seek advice from competent professionals when appropriate.


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