Welcome to Episode Seven of “ The Credit You Deserve” podcast. In this episode, host David Murphy, President of Marshfield Medical Center Credit Union, talks with a local resident who was scammed by a “smishing” scheme while on vacation. Listen on Spotify or at the link here:
In this episode, learn what to watch for and steps you can take to prevent being scammed and what to do if you give out identity information to a scammer.
MMCCU will never ask for:
- Your online banking username
- Your Social Security Number
Steps to Take if you are a victim:
- Contact your financial institutions
- Freeze your credit
- Create a PIN with the IRS for your taxes (Can also do this at your state level)
- Set up ID monitoring (Aura, Lifelock)
- Monitor your credit (http://annualcreditreport.com/, Credit Karma is also a free service)
- File a report with the government: https://www.identitytheft.gov/#/
- Get your Social Security Report: https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/statement.html
- Don’t beat yourself up!
Other Helpful Links:
Other helpful tips:
- Enable two-factor authentication on your accounts
- Don’t use the same password across multiple accounts
- Make passwords complex and hard-to-guess. Use a combination of upper and lower-case letter, symbols, and numbers
- Do not click on links in emails you weren’t expecting to receive
- Keep your computer anti-virus up-to-date
- Password-protect your network
