7 Tips on How to Protect Your Identity During the Holidays.

The holiday season is a high-risk period for identity theft due to the urgency and scarcity surrounding payment, especially in Nigeria.  During this busy season, when people shop, travel, and send gifts, identity thieves may find it easier to access personal information. Thus, it’s important to protect your identity at all costs during the holidays, and here are some tips! 

Shop on Secure Websites and Networks

Whether you want to shop during Cyber Monday or Black Friday, you provide your payment information, passwords, billing address, home, and more. So imagine what happens if you shop on insecure websites or networks. 

You lose everything in a twinkle of an eye, including some sensitive information on your device or laptop. Here is how you can safeguard your information online:

• Make use of legitimate business websites- When you shop online, you should only use websites with URLs beginning with “HTTPS,” where the “S” means “Secure.”
• Stay away from public WiFi- Do not use the café or other public WiFi if you do not want someone to take advantage of your stored personal information on your devices.

Safeguard Your Passwords

Complex passwords lose their strength when their owners do not protect them. Therefore, during the holidays, you should check your account security to reduce the risk of a compromise on your passwords. 

You can protect your passwords in a number of ways, some of which are listed below:

• Use a Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

Multifactor authentication can be your best ally during the holidays, because it offers extra security support for your passwords. MFA would help you stay safe from hackers who may want to log in to your accounts. Having various security layers on your accounts also prevents password compromises from happening.

• Adopt a Unique Password

Create a hard-to-guess password to make it nearly impossible to crack your financial account. Learn to avoid commonly used passwords like “123456” or use a password manager to keep your accounts safer.

Shop Carefully Online

Every year, millions of shoppers lose their identities and suffer financial losses. However, you don’t have to put yourself in such a situation if you can learn simple shopping hacks online. 

Follow these shopping hacks to keep your identity secure:

• Traceable Payment Options

During the holidays, many people have a tendency to ignore blatant warning signs that could indicate fraudulent activity. For instance, you should stay away from financial websites that require you to use a wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or gift card for payments.

You can save yourself from financial heartbreak if you opt for peer-to-peer payment options like Venmo or PayPal.

• Online marketplaces

When making payments on websites like Craigslist, Marketplace, Facebook, and other virtual marketplaces, you should be careful. While these marketplaces are safe, some retailers may not be genuine.

When you buy from retailers or people who request cash, you may get different purchase protection than you receive from reputable businesses or retailers.

• The “Too Good to be True”

Avoid highly affordable, in-demand goods and services. Unfortunately, a lot of scammers have produced fake websites with counterfeit goods that you might mistake for originals.

When you make payments on these websites, you end up not receiving your orders and have no means of getting a refund.

Be Alert for Shoulder Surfers

When shopping or making payments during the holidays, you should be wary of shoulder surfers. You can find shoulder surfers close to kiosks, computers, or ATMs, ready to pick up vital information from you.  

• Don’t Expose the Keypad

You should learn to use the keypad without exposing your PIN at the ATMs.  When someone lurks around when you use the ATM, you should be careful of such activity. In addition, you should not reveal sensitive information out loud. For instance, when sharing your home address or phone number for some kind of membership with a customer care representative or store clerk, do not make it obvious for another person to pick on it.

• Travel Light and Smart 

You should learn to travel with fewer cards to avoid losing any to fraudsters. In addition, you must use only a few financial institutions to reduce your risk of exposing too much information to others.  Find secure locations to make your payments or withdrawals away from skimmers. You may avoid the outdoor ATM and make payments indoors. Card skimmers may cause you more harm than shoulder surfers. Card skimmers are inserted into card readers at malls, ATMs, gas pumps, and other public payment devices. Skimmers can copy a user’s debit or credit card magnetic strip and use it for fraudulent activities. Therefore, use your card in safe places that can make it difficult for such devices to be installed on payment spots.

Take Action When You Miss Your Documents/Cards

One of the challenges many of us may experience during holidays is losing documents or cards. If you notice that you have lost any important item like a driver’s licence, financial card, or identification card, you should report it to the relevant body.

Here is our recommendation when you lose any sensitive item:

• First, check your bank reports and review them for suspicious activities.
• Shut down accounts that have been tampered immediately.
• Report any ‘fraud alert’ on your financial accounts.
• Finally, file a missing item report with the police where the identity theft happened.

Cash is Safety

Whenever you find yourself in doubt about your security, you should use cash to make payments. For example, during the holidays, you can use cash to keep you away from reckless spending. In addition, cash can protect you from identity theft, but if you cannot use some money, consider using a card with limited funds. 

Try Identity Theft Protection Alternatives

If you don’t want to look over your shoulder when making payments, use any of the identity theft protection options. With any of these tools, you can take care of fraud resolution, dark web surveillance, alerts, and monitoring of your financial activities. Don’t let any fraud-related problems stop you from travelling in your prime.