Your Best Weapon Against Fraud

Published On: September 12, 2024

Written by: Ben Atwater and Matt Malick

Data Book reports that consumers lost $10 billion to fraud in 2023, an increase of $1 billion over 2022. And we would bet that number will grow even higher in 2024.

Whether it is phishing scams, romance scams, Medicare scams, tech support scams, online shopping scams, robocall scams, government impersonators, lottery scams, “grandparent” scams or investment scams, the intensity and sophistication of these swindles only increases.

Client inquiries about all kinds of shakedowns are now common for our office. And to be clear, we are here to help in the event you experience a breach.

Your best weapon against these hustlers is to detect them and avoid them, but that is easier said than done. The prevalence and frequency of these shakedowns have become so intense that scammers are bound to sometimes catch people on a vulnerable day.

Other than outright avoiding a scam, your next best defense is a credit freeze. Although situationally dependent, a credit freeze is usually our first recommendation when a client has a serious fraud issue.

A credit freeze does just what it sounds like. It limits access to your consumer credit reports (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax). Fraudsters will usually try to open accounts (bank loans, credit cards, etc.) in your name, using your credit to try to get money. By blocking access to your credit reports, this eliminates their ability to do so.

To place a freeze on your credit, you need to contact each of the credit reporting bureaus. You can do this online, over the phone or by mail.

During this process, you will need certain information to verify your identity. This could include entering your personal information or answering personal identifying questions. If requesting the credit freeze by mail, you may have to include copies of your social security card, government issued IDs, pay stubs, tax forms, utility bills or lease agreement.

When placing a credit freeze online or by phone, the credit bureau enacts the freeze immediately. If sending the request by mail, the credit bureaus may take 3 days to apply the freeze after receiving your request.

Please see below for how to contact each credit bureau:

Experian
Online: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
Phone: (888) 397-3742
Mail: Experian Security Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion
Online: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
Phone: (800) 916-8800
Mail: TransUnion, P.O Box 160, Woodlyn, PA 19094

Equifax
Online: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
Phone: (888) 298-0045
Mail: Equifax Information Services LLC, P.O. Box 105788, Atlanta, GA 30348

In the same way that you freeze your credit, you can unfreeze your credit. You will need to contact each credit reporting agency to unfreeze your reports. They give options for a temporary unfreeze or a permanent unfreeze.

Something to also think about is whether you need to freeze your minor child’s credit as well. Since most minor children do not have a credit history, fraudsters often target them.

If you are confident that you will not use credit, e.g. take out a bank loan, finance or lease a car, rent an apartment, etc., then you may wish to freeze your credit as a preventative measure. If you use credit, then you will only want to freeze your credit in the event of a breach because it does take time and patience to freeze and unfreeze your credit.

If you do not freeze your credit, instead set up a service that provides you with alerts from your credit reports. Such services include companies like AURA, LifeLock and Identity Guard. Many credit card companies also provide free credit alerts to cardholders.

Since we have your attention, we will also share broader tips to avoid fraud:

Do not click anything in a suspicious email. Suspicious emails can be tricky to identify. Here is what to look for: suspicious requests; emails from fraudsters posing as people you have emailed before (sometimes they make a similar email address, but it is off by one letter or a digit, etc.); and emails from fraudsters posing as businesses. When looking at a suspicious email, you can hover your curser (do NOT click) over links. When you hover, this will show you the web address for the link.

In general, enable double-authentication features on accounts and apps. Make sure your personal information is up to date on accounts and apps. Never use the same password for multiple accounts. There are password managing apps to store and generate unique passwords for your different accounts. If you have a smartphone (Android or iPhone), there is a password manager feature on your phone.

Do not give anyone any information over the phone, ever. No legitimate business or government agency will call you asking for personal information. And if you call them, make sure you know exactly who you are calling and exactly why you are calling them. Make sure you find the number yourself from a reliable source, do not trust a phone number that someone you don’t know provides to you.

Again, if you run into a problem, we are here to help. Our team is patient, understanding and meticulous and therefore they are terrific at working through these challenges with clients.