Strategies To Protect Your Data
Cyber criminals are constantly looking for new ways to attempt to gather important personal and financial information. Practicing good security habits and being aware of threats may help lessen the odds of becoming a victim.
Part of our value that we deliver at Covenant Wealth Strategies includes staying vigilant and protecting our clients' financial interests. For example, our team monitors all transactions and accounts. Our security policy in our office requires verbal confirmation from our client seeking to move money. Verbal confirmation is required before any money can be moved from their account(s). If we see money moving without verbal consent, we will take immediate action and inform our client(s) impacted.
If you think that you may be a victim of identity theft, you should consider freezing or locking your information. The benefit of a freeze is that it prevents lenders from accessing your credit report. Lenders will typically not extend credit without first accessing your credit report.
You can contact the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the national consumer reporting agencies for more information on fraud alerts, security freezes and other steps you can take to avoid identity theft:
- Equifax, P.O. Box 105788, Atlanta, Georgia 30348, 1-877-478-7625, www.equifax.com
- Experian, P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013, 1-888-397-3742, www.experian.com
- TransUnion, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016, 1-800-680-7289, www.transunion.com
- Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Response Center, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20580, 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357), www.ftc.gov/idtheft
You may also obtain a free copy of your credit report online at www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling toll-free 1-877-322-8228.
If you would like to learn more about the ways to protect yourself from cyber criminals, we encourage you to watch the playback recording from our event last year with our guest speaker, Jennifer Dahill, Director with MFS Investments.
We welcome you to Contact Us with any questions that you may have on this topic.
MFS Investments, Jennifer Dahill, LPL Financial and Covenant Wealth Strategies are not affiliates and make no representation to each other.