Trumbull PD Offers Fraud Prevention Tips

From Trumbull PD: The purpose of this article is to provide some simple tips that may help you avoid becoming a victim of identity theft or telemarketing fraud.

Identity theft occurs when someone obtains your personal information, such as your name, social security number or other forms of identification for the purpose of committing a fraud or larceny, by identifying themselves as you.

To reduce your chances of becoming a victim of identity theft follow these tips:

• Don’t carry your social security card with you. Leave it in a secure, safe location.
• Never give a business your social security number simply because it is asked of you. Only provide it when required and when you are comfortable with the situation. Check your credit report every 12 months, protect your financial information and keep your personal information secure.
• Never provide personal information over the phone, through the mail or internet unless you have initiated the contact and you are comfortable with the person you are communicating with. Protect your personnel computers, utilizing firewalls, anti-spam/virus software, change passwords and update security patches.

Telemarketing Fraud is sometimes hard for us to resist. Who doesn’t want to help someone lessfortunate? Calls seeking donations to aid victims of catastrophic storms or the homeless are hard to say no to. One such call that many of us are familiar with is from someone claiming to be a relative in need of money to help them out of some predicament, such as a car crash, an arrest or something else that requires a quick cash transfer somewhere.

You may also receive a call from someone claiming that you have just won a wonderful prize and all you need to do is send an administrative fee to claim it. These are generally ways to entice you in to sending money. In some cases the caller has even called back asking you for additional money to claim your prize. It is estimated that almost $100 billion dollars is lost annually to frauds, cons and the multitude of scams we are faced with. What is even more disturbing is that the elderly are targeted by such con-artists, many times through telephone scams.

If a caller asks for your credit card number, bank information or social security number to verify a prize or vacation simply say “No” and hang up.

If you feel you have been defrauded call the police or the Better Business Bureau. If an offer sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Please do not fall victim to any of these fraudulent forms of stealing your hard earned money. Be careful, and never give out your personal or banking information to any caller.

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