HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF: IDENTITY THEFT

What is Identity Theft?

Identity theft is a serious crime. It can disrupt your finances, credit history, and reputation, and take time, money, and patience to resolve. Identity theft happens when someone steals your personal information and uses it without your permission.

How to protect youself:

Identity Theft

Go through trash cans and dumpsters, stealing bills and documents that have sensitive information.
Work for businesses, medical offices, or government agencies, and steal personal information on the job.
Misuse the name of a legitimate business, and call or send emails that trick you into revealing personal information.
Pretend to offer a job, a loan, or an apartment, and ask you to send personal information to “qualify.”
Steal your wallet, purse, backpack, or mail, and remove your credit cards, driver’s license, passport, health insurance card, and other items that show personal information.

Store your Social Security card, financial documents and unused credit cards in a secure location.
Read your bank, credit card, and account statements. If a statement has mistakes or doesn’t come on time, contact us immediately.
Shred all documents that show personal and financial information before you throw them away.
Review your credit reports. You have a right to a free credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies. Order all three reports at once, or order one report every four months. To order, go to annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228.
Don’t respond to emails, texts, and phone messages that ask for personal information. Legitimate companies don’t ask for information this way. Delete the messages.
Create strong passwords that mix letters, numbers, and special characters. Don’t use the same password for more than one account.
If you shop or bank online, use websites that protect your financial information with encryption. An encrypted site has “https” at the beginning of the web address; “s” is for secure.
If you use a public wireless network, don’t send information to any website that isn’t fully encrypted.
Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and a firewall on your computer.
Set your computer’s operating system, web browser, and security system to update automatically.

▪︎ File a complaint with the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint or 1-877-438-4338; TTY: 1-866-653-4261. Your completed complaint is called an FTC Affidavit.
▪︎ Take your FTC Affidavit to your local police, or to the police where the theft occurred, and file a police report. Get a copy of the police report.

Need to report an incident?

Call our SFCU Support Department

(305) 329-7330

Monday through Friday

8:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. (EST)

Email: support@springslowcreditunion.com

Identity thieves might:

How to protect your information?

What to do if your identity has been stolen?

1. Report your identity has been stolen to your financial institution.

If your identity has been stolen, immediately let us know so we can help protect you from unauthorized transactions.

Within the United States: (305) 329-7330 – Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (EST).

Outside the United States: Call your local Representative Office and dial extension 7330 or toll free 1 (855) 370-4356 – A SFCU Support Representative is available to assist you Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (EST).

2. Flag your credit reports

Call one of the nationwide credit reporting companies, and ask for a fraud alert on your credit report. The company you call must contact the other two so they can put fraud alerts on your files. An initial fraud alert is good for 90 days.

Equifax 1-800-525-6285

Experian 1-888-397-3742

TransUnion 1-800-680-7289

3. Order your credit reports

Each company's credit report about you is slightly different, so order a report from each company. When you order, you must answer some questions to prove your identity. Read your reports carefully to see if the information is correct. If you see mistakes or signs of fraud, contact the credit reporting company.

4. Create an Identity Theft Report

An Identity Theft Report can help you get fraudulent information removed from your credit report, stop a company from collecting debts caused by identity theft, and get information about accounts a thief opened in your name. To create an Identity Theft Report:

+ Have you received a suspicious email?

+ Has your user IDs or password been lost or stolen?

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