Think about hotspots when visiting your favorite summer hotspot

By: Christopher Grounds, Ph.D., Certified Identity Protection Advisor (CIPA)

School’s out, the weather is warm, and the family is looking forward to a well-deserved vacation at the beach or in the mountains. While you keep an eye out for sharks in the water or bears in the forest, you should be aware of some hidden threats that come at you from the dark areas of the electronic world. How do you protect your family (and your finances) while on vacation? Here are a couple of good rules of thumb.

Number one – turn off your wifi on your devices unless you’re actively using it. Not only does it save battery by not constantly searching for connections, it also helps prevent inadvertent connections from familiar sites you use at home (such as a popular coffee shop).

Number two – you’ve heard this advice many times before; don’t post on social media while you’re on vacation. Here’s why – a “friend” of a friend on social media may see that you are on vacation in Florida, call your phone number if it’s listed on your social media account, tell you they’re from the bank fraud department seeing that your card is being used in Florida, they just need to confirm it’s you by having you repeat your credit card number to them. If this happens, tell them you will call them back, and then call the number on the back of your credit card to determine if it was real.

Finally, if you’re really needing to do important financial transactions, most banks provide smartphone apps that utilize cellular data, or you can configure your smartphone as a cellular hotspot so your tablet or laptop can use that hotspot as a connection.

Enjoy your summer!

Don’t let an Identity Grinch ruin your Holidays!

Don’t let an Identity Grinch ruin your Holidays!

By: Christopher Grounds, Ph.D., Certified Identity Protection Advisor (CIPA)

You hear more and more about identity theft these days. In fact, most every American can now say they’ve been a victim or personally know a victim of this crime. Although no one can completely make themselves or their business identity-theft proof, there are many simple steps you can take to make your identity not worth the trouble for thieves to steal. So, how do you make the Identity Grinch pick an easier house to loot?

First, think about how the Grinch in the Christmas Story hatched his plan. He spied on the Whoville village, picked an opportune time to strike, and convinced little Cindy Lou Who that he was simply there to help.

Just like the Grinch spying on the village, most everything you do online is monitored and collected to a certain degree (some for good purposes, some for not so good). What are you sharing when you’re interacting online for social or financial reasons? Act as if you’re being watched or recorded while you’re sharing information, and guard that information accordingly.

Next, some of the most opportune times for identity thieves to strike is during the holidays – why is that? Simply put, you’re using your credit cards and identity far more frequently than any other time of the year. Identity thieves are banking on the assumption that you’re not checking and verifying every transaction during that time, so a small $1 transaction may go unnoticed. A couple of hours, days, or weeks later, the bigger transaction will occur!

Finally, identity thieves may convince you that they’re really trying to help in an email or phone call letting you know about an issue with your Amazon account, a specific credit card, or your bank account. They may provide a simple link to take care of an issue, or they may just need a simple piece of information to verify it’s you, like your Social Security Number.

So, how do you protect yourself and your business this time of year?

First and foremost, separate your personal information from your business information. If either account is compromised, that greatly lessens the likelihood that it can create a domino-effect on your personal and business assets. Also, use different security questions between your personal accounts and business accounts as an added safety precaution.

Second, be proactive in monitoring your information – this can be as simple as setting up alerts with financial institutions for transactions, or can also involve using monitoring services (from as little as credit monitoring from banking / credit institutions to more comprehensive monitoring and restoration services).

Lastly, use the sniff test when you receive an unsolicited offer of help – we all know the fake ads about “winning an iPad just for clicking”, but newer recent unsolicited emails genuinely look realistic. If you receive an email like that and want to verify, look up the number for the business online (NOT the number that’s in the email – you’ll find they’re often different).

In the Christmas story, the Grinch had a change of heart and returned everything to Whoville. Although I wish all identity thieves will have a change of heart like the Grinch and return what they’ve taken, that’s often not the case. So, don’t give them the chance this holiday season!

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Christopher Grounds, Ph.D., CIPA, is a Certified Identity Protection Advisor with the Identity Management Institute, and is the co-owner of Benefits4Success with Joni Grounds, whose mission is to grow and protect individuals and small businesses. He can be reached at chris@benefits4success.com .