Credit Bureaus Archives - John Sileo, Cyber Security Training

Posts tagged "Credit Bureaus"

8th Day: What to Give the Person Who has Everything (and Wants to Keep it!)

Holiday Security Tips: On the eighth day of Christmas, the experts gave to me, 8 scam detectors

Most of us are too busy to monitor every form of identity that is at risk. Unfortunately, victims usually get hit when they take their eye off the ball.

Solution: Purchase a comprehensive identity monitoring service

While a partridge in a pear tree may have been appreciated in 18^th century England, it’s not a very coveted item these days! Instead, help out the ones you love (and yourself!) by giving the gift of identity theft monitoring.

How to Opt Out of Junk Mail to Protect Identity

There are complete industries built around collecting, massaging and selling your data – your name, phone number, address, spending patterns, surfing habits, net worth, the age of your children, the magazines you buy, etc. Companies buy bits of your privacy so that they can knowledgeably market products to you that you are likely to purchase. The problem is, that data, once collected, is often breached by hackers who want to know more about you.

To minimize the amount of your personal information bought and sold on the data market, begin “opting out”. Opting out is the process of notifying organizations that collect your personal information to stop sharing it with other organizations. “Pre-approved” credit card offers (i.e., financial junk mail) are a major source of identity theft. Those mailers give thieves an easy way to set up credit card accounts in your name without your consent. They spend money on the card and default on the balance, leaving you with the mess of proving that you didn’t make the purchases. The solution is to opt out of receiving pre-approved credit, home loan and insurance offers as well as mass marketing databases.