How to safeguard yourself against scams, deal with spam emails and identity theft

Here are a few simple things that you do to safeguard yourself against fraud, scams and email spam.

1.    Never give your credit card number or social security number over the phone or online unless you can ascertain the authencity of the call or mail. Normally you need to provide this kind of information only to you bank, your lenders or medical services.

2.    Make a small investment in a paper shredder, mainly to shred any documents or letters that contain your personal information like your full... name, address, bank account details , credit card numbers, because the identity thieves actually go through your trash to gain access to any of these information which you may bin by mistake.  If you do not have access to a shredder burns the document in a safe manner.

3.    Report any lost or stolen cheques to your bank immediately, as the bank can block the payment for that particular cheque or cheque number.

4.    Whenever you issue a cheque to a person try as much as possible to only give an “Account Payee” cheque which means the cheque can be en-cashed only by depositing in the intended person’s bank account and not over the Teller in the bank.

5.    Keep important documents like your bank statements, credit card statements , credit history details, medical bills, new cheque books and cancelled cheque books in a very safe place and shred them when you do not need it anymore.

6.    Whenever you receive your pin number for you Automatic Teller Machine(ATM) or Cash Machine, make sure you change the pin number and destroy the hardcopy of the pin number received. Again when you change your pin number decide on a pin number which is not very obvious for any one like you date of birth, year of birth and such. Try to go for something that you would only be able to relate to and remember well.

7.    When you setup a password for your email account or bank account make sure you your password is at least  8 characters long and with a mix of alpha numeric (mixture of numbers and words)  character and a special symbol (e.g - !#~>< ..etc) and with a mix of up case and lower case alphabets.  eg of a password – Xyz75682! . Never use a dictionary word as your password because, when people try to steal your password they fisrt try a dictionary attack which would randomly try all dictionary words to find a match and break into your account.

8.    Make sure you make of a good quality anti virus, and anti spyware program along with a firewall program.

9.    When using a wireless network make sure you make it a secured one, to prevent access to unauthorised people within the wireless coverage area who may misuse it.

10.    If you suddenly stop receiving you utility bills, bank statement etc  to your address make sure you contact the respective organisations, as someone might have diverted your mails to their desired address to get hold of your personal information.

11.    Always have a good look at the charges in your utility bill or bank statement or credit card statement to ascertain if there are any suspicious transactions or unexpected charges. If you do find one get in touch with the respective organisation immediately. In addition to it,  have a look at your credit report regularly to check if there is any unauthorised credit by you in the statement.


More ways to protect yourself against fraud, spam and scam to follow soon.