Random Thought: Recession Protection!

July 30. 2009 by admin.

In this day in age we can’t take enough precaution in protecting ourselves and our assets (no matter how much you have). Here’s an e-mail I received (thanks Mom!) called “Free Advice” informing the general population on keeping what’s yours:

1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put ‘PHOTO ID REQUIRED.’ 
2. When you are writing checks to pay your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the ‘For’ line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the numbers, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it.
3. Put your work phone number on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a P.O. Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a P.O. Box, use your work address.
4. Run the contents of your wallet thru a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel in the event it gets lost or stolen. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us- whether it’s stealing a name, address, social security number, credit cards, etc.
5. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately, but the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
6. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). But here’s what’s perhaps most important of all (I never even thought to do this):
7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had already been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks. Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, if it has been stolen:

• Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 
• Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
• Trans Union : 1-800-680 7289
• Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

 Be blessed…KuTs

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