{"id":20491,"date":"2017-12-20T12:15:22","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T10:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.pricecheck.co.za\/?p=20491"},"modified":"2018-04-06T10:23:51","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T08:23:51","slug":"protect-yourself-against-online-identity-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/protect-yourself-against-online-identity-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect yourself against online identity theft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Losing your purse or wallet or having it stolen is always stressful, disruptive and inconvenient. Having your identity or personal information stolen or hacked can be worse.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only can criminals with access to your information potentially clean out your bank account, they can also fraudulently open accounts or apply for loans in your name. Unsuspecting creditors will come to you for repayment and the trail of debt will certainly affect your credit score.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nowadays it\u2019s not just losing your identity document or other hard copies of personal information that you have to worry about. An ever increasing amount of your personal and financial information is now stored digitally, increasing the possibility of unauthorised people accessing it or even it being accidentally leaked. There have been several recent examples of this.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Besides your online banking profile if you\u2019ve bought an app, book or any other product online, that company has some record of your financial and personal details. Even though the information is protected and secured, mistakes can occur or hackers could gain access to the files.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Financial services provider DirectAxis has the following tips for protecting your personal information.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<li><strong>Keep tabs of your credit score.<\/strong>\u00a0If you\u2019ve been paying your debts on time, haven\u2019t opened up a lot of new accounts and have otherwise been financially responsible, a sudden decline in your credit score may indicate fraudulent activity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">South Africans are entitled to one free credit report a year and it\u2019s a good idea to review the report to look for and query anything unusual. But only checking annually may not be sufficient. Signing up for online tools such as Pulse,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.directaxis.co.za\/pulse\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en-GB&amp;q=https:\/\/www.directaxis.co.za\/pulse&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1513847176424000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGevcN6ZEAwJcZ7xfAykDcZAwQLQA\">https:\/\/www.directaxis.co.za\/pulse<\/a>\u00a0will allow you to check your credit information as often as you like, for free. It will also flag any credit enquiries made against your name.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Receive alerts when your debit or credit card is used:<\/strong>\u00a0Most banks offer a service that sends an SMS notification every time your debit or credit card is used. Although it may cost you a little in bank charges, it does mean that if anyone gets hold of your card or duplicates it, you\u2019ll know as soon as they use it and can ask the bank to block the card. If you can prove fraud and that you took precautions to prevent it, most banks will reverse illegal transactions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t carry any identification that isn\u2019t essential:\u00a0<\/strong>Most places will accept your driver\u2019s licence as a form of identification. If you lose this, it\u2019s inconvenient, but losing your ID documentation or having it stolen could expose you to more risk of identity theft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Advise financial service providers of a change of address:<\/strong>\u00a0If you don\u2019t want your sensitive financial documents and other private information ending up in a stranger\u2019s letterbox tell companies that send you statements and accounts by post when you move.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tear up or shred sensitive documents:<\/strong>\u00a0Don\u2019t throw out documents containing information that other people could use to impersonate you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Choose security over convenience:<\/strong>\u00a0When transacting online, more security is always better than less. Experts talk about two-tier security. This means you need a login and password to access your accounts and then need a verification to transfer money or increase your monthly payment limit. This usually takes the form of one-time-password sent to your cellphone. It may take a little longer, but it\u2019s much more secure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be careful what you share online:\u00a0<\/strong>Many online sites use security questions, such as the name of your first dog or your mother\u2019s maiden name to verify your identity or if you want to change your password. If all this information is available on your social media postings, fraudsters could use it to access your online accounts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Your cellphone isn\u2019t a safe:<\/strong>\u00a0You might think your mobile phone is a good place to store all your passwords, but what happens if it\u2019s lost or stolen? Even smartphones with fingerprint IDs and passcodes aren\u2019t foolproof, especially if your code is 1234.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A good rule of thumb, if you\u2019re unsure about what should be in the public domain is the postcard test. If you wouldn\u2019t write it on a postcard, then you should probably keep it to yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Losing your purse or wallet or having it stolen is always stressful, disruptive and inconvenient. Having your identity or personal information stolen or hacked can be worse. Not only can criminals with access to your information potentially clean out your bank account, they can also fraudulently open accounts or apply for loans in your name.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"\/blog\/protect-yourself-against-online-identity-theft\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2696,2695,2289],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/hacker-1944688_960_720.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21700,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491\/revisions\/21700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}