{"id":1621,"date":"2017-10-07T11:58:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T15:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westport.org\/?p=1621"},"modified":"2025-11-03T14:54:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:54:55","slug":"protect-yourself-against-identity-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/protect-yourself-against-identity-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By now you\u2019ve probably heard about the Equifax Breach. We want you to make sure you\u2019re protected from any future identity theft. Here\u2019s a list of things you can do to help make that happen.<\/em><\/p>\n

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1.\u00a0Check your free credit reports<\/strong>
\nUnder federal law you are allowed to request a free copy of your credit report once a year from each of the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can request a copy of your credit report online at\u00a0www.annualcreditreport.com<\/a>. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
2.\u00a0 Put a fraud alert on your credit<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
You can put\u00a0a fraud alert on your credit reports<\/a>\u00a0for free by contacting one of the credit agencies, which is required to notify the other two. This means you’ll be contacted if someone tries to apply for credit in your name. It will last for 90 days and can be renewed.<\/p>\n

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3.\u00a0 Keep and eye on bank accounts and credit card statements<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
Go through all your bank, retirement, and brokerage accounts, as well as your credit card statements to look for any suspicious activity.<\/p>\n

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4.\u00a0 Sign up for a credit monitoring or identity theft protection service<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
Some monitoring services include identity theft protection, which will alert you when your personal information is being used in ways that doesn’t show up on your credit report. It could monitor things like utility and cable bills, payday loan applications, and social media.<\/p>\n

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5.\u00a0 If you\u2019re really worried, put a freeze on your credit<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
This is an extreme step and might not be necessary, especially if you don’t know for sure that you’re information was compromised, or what personal information was stolen.\u00a0 \u00a0Fees to freeze your account vary by state,\u00a0but commonly range from $5 to $10.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Source: http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2017\/09\/09\/pf\/what-to-do-equifax-hack\/index.html?iid=EL<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By now you\u2019ve probably heard about the Equifax Breach. We want you to make sure you\u2019re protected from any future identity theft. Here\u2019s a list of things you can do to help make that happen.     1.\u00a0Check your free credit reports Under federal law you are allowed to request a free copy of your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74,16,72,71,73,44,12,43],"class_list":["post-1621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-promos","tag-credit-report","tag-credit-union","tag-equifax-breach","tag-identity-theft","tag-identity-theft-protection","tag-ma","tag-westport","tag-westport-federal-credit-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1621"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4922,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions\/4922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}