Today I so excited to see my friend Andrew Wooten who is president of S.A.F.E. at our joint ECAR and WCR Event as I so enjoy him and I always learn something.
A few years ago I attended is Safety for Realtors class and got to be his “victim” Have you seen how tall this man is? Lord, he is a tower and I am 5’2” on a good day!
He put on his marital arts pads and uniform (he is ranked 8th in the nation among in martial arts and holds several blackbelts in many forms of marital arts) so obviously I was not a match for him!
He taught us how to defend ourselves in the event of an attack and I had to try to get away from him and no “hold back”. Of course he won but I did learn how to get out of that type of situation.
He is truly an amazing man to hear and encourage you to go to his website http://justbesafe.com/index.html and see his background and why he is in such demand to speak not only at our state and national levels but also on the international level.
Today’s class was called “Identity Theft: Protecting Your Customer” and I was amazed at what I learned that we need to implement in our brokerage office to protect our customers information.
Trust me it was an eye opener and I am certain many agents took this information to their Brokers to inform them. But there was also information for protecting ourselves and something I feel others should consider.
Did you know Florida is #1 state in the country for data and identity theft?
The top three individual areas of victimization are children, elderly, and the deceased. One of the top offenders are your co-workers?
Unbelievable!
So here are some tips for you to use at home and especially in your home office.
- Lock your file cabinets and put a lockout on your computer that kicks in within a minute or two of idleness.
- Password protect your computer and consider encrypting your files. Caution: It takes twice as much memory to un-encrypt a file than to encrypt it so make sure you have plenty of memory.
- Consider using an remote online backup service.
- Get a shredder that does more than shred into long strips and then collect the shreds in a garbage bag and then take outside and soak the shreds with water and then stomp on the bag….why? Because it will be impossible to piece it back together…and yes there was a report on 60 minutes showing that scammers are dumping the shredding onto a floor and begin piecing it back together to get your information.
Do you know what is the #1 thing stolen from homes?
- Bank statements
- Credit card statements and receipts
- Tax returns.
Lock them up!
Did you know that there are USB drives that contain a virus that only needs to be connected to your computer for 3 seconds. Then it will track your keystrokes on your computer and viewed by the scammer and gather your information.
90,000 viruses are created each day so you really need a good Anti-Virus software to protect your data.
Identity cloning is when someone then begins living and working as you!
They once they gather some of your information they can get a driver’s license and other identification and then go rack up debt in your name in another state and you may not know about it for years!
They can purchase a home or a car and may make the payments for a few years and then just walk away and it then that you get notified of your mortgage or car payment being delinquent.
What can you do?
- Sign all new credit cards upon receipt.
- Save all credit card receipts and match them against electronic bank statements.
- Be wary of anyone calling to “confirm” personal information.
- Consider getting a secure mailbox as many scammers with check mailboxes around mid-month in hopes of getting your credit card/bank statements or government checks.
- Always make internet purchases on secure websites and start getting your credit card and bank statements online.
- Monitor your accounts online so you can easily identify suspicious activity.
- Limit what you carry in your wallet or your purse.
- Put a few check in your wallet instead of the entire checkbook.
Obviously we all know NOT to leave our wallet or purse unattended….but we are all guilty of it in our offices and at home.
I encourage you to use all the free resources on Andrew’s site and also to look at the Federal Trade Commission site http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/index.html .
Identity theft is serious and it CAN happen to you….
Thanks Andrew!