Protect Your Personal Information

Because you can control the information you choose to release, you are the single best person to protect your personal information. There are some easy ways do this: by keeping anything with any personal or account information in a safe place, providing your information only to trusted sources, and by reducing the amount of mail you receive with your information on it.

Your local banking institution most likely offers a suite of tools designed to help protect you against identity theft. You can also get credit monitoring every business day with alerts when certain changes in your credit file(s) occur.

It's okay to be skeptical when providing your personal information. If you can't verify the legitimacy of the business or person that you may be providing your information to, or if you don't understand why a certain piece of information is needed, you may want to think twice about the transaction before finalizing. Learn More Safety and Security Tips

Secure Your Computer

You don't have to be an expert in computers to protect yourself on the Internet from online fraud and identity theft.

If you haven't already, install anti-spyware, anti-virus, and a personal firewall on your computer. There are many of these products available that will help you prevent criminals from gaining access to your computer and stealing your personal information. A properly protected computer will provide you with secure access to your financial information and combat the efforts of criminals trying to gain access to your activities.

Understanding which online threats exist is always helpful too, but there are other steps that you can easily take to further reduce your fraud and identity theft risk while online.Learn More Safety and Security Tips

Take care of your personal information

Your personal information is present on mail, credit cards, and identification. Protecting these pieces of information is the first step in reducing your risk of identity theft and fraud.

Carry only necessary identification with you. Do not carry your Social Security card.
Treat your credit cards and Check Cards like cash.
Retrieve incoming mail from your mailbox quickly. Do not leave outgoing mail in an unsecured mailbox or any other location.
Make copies of all of the financial information that you carry with you daily and store the copies in a safe place.

Provide Information Only to Trusted Sources

You should share your information only with trusted sources. If you can't verify the identity of the source asking for your personal information, you should be very cautious about the transaction.

Too good to Be true emails.

Never provide personal information unless you have initiated the contact and have confirmed the business or person's identity.
Be cautious of telephone and door-to-door and postal solicitations.
Be skeptical of offers that seem "too good to be true". They usually are.
Learn to detect fraudulent emails.
Emails with bad grammar or spelling errors.
Emails with an unfamiliar greeting or salutation.
Inconsistencies in email addresses, links and domain names.
Suspicious attachments.
Emails requesting login credentials, payment information or sensitive data.

Eliminate Paper and Increase Security

Recent studies have shown that a very easy way to protect your personal information is to limit the amount of paper that has your personal information printed on it. Criminals have been known to get this paper by stealing mail from your mailbox or even by taking it out of your trash.

Here are some ways you can eliminate paper and increase your security:

Reduce the amount of mail you receive that displays personal information.
Shred unnecessary financial documents immediately before throwing them away.
Stop receiving account statements in the mail. Sign-in to Online Banking at your financial institution and navigate to the place where you can make the choice to stop mailing your paper statements.
Stop receiving your canceled checks by mail. View them online instead by signing in to your Online Banking Account Activity where you can view and print. You can download them and save and/or print them as PDF files.
Sign up for Direct Deposit. Set up automatic deposits with your bank or financial institution to have your funds put directly in your account without the need for paper checks.
Opt-out of pre-approved credit card offers by dialing 1.888.567.8688. This will communicate your preference to all three of the major credit bureaus, stopping pre-approved credit card offers in your mailbox.

See even more easy ways to protect yourself.