The Coronavirus pandemic has upended our lives on many levels. We do the best we can to stay on top of our finances, but stimulus checks, changes in tax filing dates, filing for unemployment benefits and other fallout of the pandemic have thrown us all a little off-balance and created a perfect breeding ground for scams and fraud.
We were recently invited to a virtual presentation given by Jeff Lanza, a retired FBI agent, who offered specific practices to help prevent fraud and keep our personal information from being compromised. He has 2 handouts for the public containing very useful information and easy to follow tips that we are sharing with you today.
Identity theft & Cybercrime
For example, to protect your identity online, he suggests you think in terms of passphrases with 12 or more characters and presents solutions for passwords and password storage and protection. In many cases, it is just as valuable to know what not to do as knowing the right steps to take. In the handout, Jeff shares his view of what protective steps are effective and worth doing and those suggestions to be wary of.
In terms of cybercrime, he discusses how to monitor your personal credit file and credit freezes, and how to stay safe from cyber fraud, email hijacking and account takeovers.
Please give the attached documents a read and we hope you find them helpful.
Please reach out to us with any changes or concerns that might effect your financial planning. Let's try to stay safe out there on every level!
