Protect Your Finances From Identity Theft
With most business and financial information being digitized today, it’s easier than ever for a crook or hacker to steal your identity. You can protect yourself in various ways by being cautious about the information you post on social media, by choosing difficult to guess passwords and by changing those passwords often. Yet even with all the pro activity, you can still have your identity stolen. To protect yourself and your finances, here a few ideas you can implement right now.
Identity Theft Protection 101
The best way to stop identity theft is to keep your social security card in a safe and secure location, like in a locked safe in your house. Make sure your name, address and phone number aren’t listed all over the Internet; and ensure that your privacy settings on social media and your mobile phone are set to protect you from identity theft at every turn. Furthermore, you can search for unclaimed funds which, believe it or not, contributes to tons of identity theft each and every year.
How Identity Theft Can Occur Due To Unclaimed Funds
If you abandon a bank account or end up losing one of your paychecks from a previous job, you could have your identity stolen if anyone were to claim that money as their own. For instance, let’s say that your child was supposed to receive regular child support payments through a court ordered program; and then let’s pretend that one of those checks went missing. If that were to happen, someone, anyone might be able to contact the court to pretend to be you in an attempt to claim the money as their own.
To protect yourself, your assets and to prevent identity theft, visit the Cash Unclaimed database. This national database has been put in place to help people just like you find and claim unclaimed funds. If you have money in holding at a treasury at the state or federal level, Cash Unclaimed will let you know about it.
Right now, a hacker may be looking at a check owed to you from a banking institution you haven’t thought of in over ten years. It’s up to you; do you want to claim those funds or do you want to let the identity thief have them? The choice is clear. Visit Cash Unclaimed and claim that money as your own, and stop identity theft in its tracks.