Are You Making Your Children And Grandchildren Targets For Identity Thieves?

ARE YOU MAKING ARE YOU MAKING YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TARGETS GRANDCHILDREN TARGETS FOR IDENTITY THIEVES? FOR IDENTITY THIEVES?

“They won’t have the freedom I had as a child to transform myself. In junior high school, for example, I wore only pink and turquoise. But when I moved across town for high school, I changed my wardrobe entirely and wore only preppy clothes with penny loafers. Nobody knew about my transformation because I left no trail, except a few dusty photographs in a shoebox in my parents’ closet.”*

Identity thieves are everywhere and they’re tracking you on social media. Parents protect children when they are online but may be unintentionally leaving them vulnerable to identity bandits. In the past, thieves had to go through your trash, stand too close to you at the checkout stand, or google you. Today’s social media makes it so much easier to get plenty of personal information. We often connect with each other through social media that makes the distance between friends and family seem shorter.

Recent studies indicate identity theft is on the rise and the perpetrators never leave their desks. Unknowingly, we help them to be successful at their lawlessness. We post when we are on vacation, when we buy a new car, a new house and the list goes on. Proud parents and grandparents are eager to share the arrival of a new baby. It is a joyous time, and we share names, dates, birthplaces, and the parents’ names. All this becomes fodder for thieves. Equally, we list graduations, military induction dates, and colleges our kids attend. And who doesn’t love a fun ‘answer this survey’ question that is designed to innocently track information. Below, I have listed links that wade through understanding how a pilferer operates and how to protect you and your loved ones from them:

Tips to protect your personal life from identity thieves: Be aware of what is public. We often think our accounts are protected, but they aren’t always. Take the time to scan the security features quarterly. Google yourself. See what is out there on you. Then be mindful of the information you post there in the future. When I googled myself, I found three pages of available information. Don’t accept friend requests from people you do not know. Or at the very least, investigate them. Know who is asking to be a part of your circle or your child’s. When you go on vacation, post pictures after you get home. Do not let burglars know you are not home. This is important even if you have a house sitter, you may leave them vulnerable. Be careful when you check-in or share your location. A lot of us like to take a picture of our feet on the iconic PDX airport carpet, be aware you just signaled with the date that you are not home. Shoulder Sneaks and Lookie Lous. Be aware of anyone standing too close to you at an ATM, check out stand or anytime your card leaves your hand. Use one credit card so you can track all expenditures and pay it immediately from your bank account. NEVER use your debit card in these situations, if anyone gains access to your account, they can drain you in hours. Keep Track of Receipts. Be aware of scams called phishing. When you give out your phone number, birthdate, email address or phone number, you are now a target for malignant and invasive attachments. Do NOT open emails from people you do not know. An easy red flag is an email with grammar and spelling mistakes. DON’T RESPOND TO THEM!

Unsubscribing. When you receive emails, you do not want, unsubscribe BUT be aware if you are taken to another screen and asked to put your email in that you want unsubscribed, DON’T! Instead, move the email to the blocked section of your mail. If you fall for the above unsubscribe you may add yourself to another lengthy list of unsolicited emails. Passwords. We have all struggled to remember a log in password so we either write it down, or we use the same password in all our log ins. DON’T! A smarter choice is to build a unique password that has random numbers, letters, and symbols. Never use the same password for fun accounts, business accounts and accounts dealing with your money. Keeping track of all your passwords can still be daunting. Consider opting for password managers like: roboform. com, or NordPass.com or Keeper.com. A good password manager will integrate or merge strong passwords, remind you to change them, and be your first line of defense against predators. All this to say, be aware. If you don’t understand, get help. If you do not like implementing security, get software that will. If you want to share your grandbabies pictures, awards, and successes, do it in a general manner eliminating detailed facts or set your social media to private. We all want to applaud our young people’s success, but we do not have to know the details that could jeopardize their safety.