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Don't Get Hacked! And What To Do If You Do

How to monitor your accounts and how to keep the bad guys from getting your money.

The easiest way to monitor accounts? Set up alerts-- bank accounts, debit cards and credit card accounts have this option.  You can have them send you an alert if a purchase over a certain amount is made. This takes just a few minutes. 

Something that takes a little bit longer, but is the best protection is freezing your credit. A freeze keeps the bad guys from opening up accounts in your name, you can still use your credit cards, you just need to unfreeze credit if you need a loan. 

You need to freeze your credit with all three bureaus and it's free.


TransUnion


Equifax


Experian

What do you do if you are an ID theft victim?

 File a report with the FTC. this gives you a record of it. 

Second--call the company where the fraud occurred and ask to speak to someone in the fraud department.

 Report the fraud to the three credit bureaus.

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