Frauds and Cons You Should Know About Today

How to keep a child's identity from being stolen

Identity theft can happen to children, and it does. Here are some ways to protect your kids from identity theft.

Does your child have a record of credit? Some people might find this question strange, but children are often the target of identity theft.

With a child's Social Security number, a crook can open credit card and cell phone accounts and even apply for apartments and house loans. And since your child might not run a credit check until they are an adult, the identity theft could go unnoticed for years.

Here are three things you can do to keep your child's name from being stolen.

1. Keep information about your children safe.

Start stopping identity theft by keeping close track of your child's personal information. Take steps to store personal information safely, especially any paper or digital documents that hold your child's Social Security number. Make sure to shred any private papers before you throw them away. Keeping antivirus software up-to-date may also help stop digital security breaches.

Also, as your child starts school and joins youth groups, you'll be asked for his or her Social Security number on more forms. If the neighborhood baseball league wants to know personal information about your child, it may not be necessary. Before you share information about your child with others, find out how it will be used and kept.

2. Educate your children on the subject.

Children don't need to know their Social Security numbers until they are old enough to know how to protect themselves. Once they have access to this information, teach them how to use the internet safely and how important it is to keep personal information private. Explain that clicking on links and getting files from places you don't know can give hackers access to your personal and financial information, and what that could mean for your family.

3. Keep an eye on your mail for signs of identity theft.

If the IRS tells you that your child hasn't paid their taxes or if you start getting calls or bills in their name, they may have had their identity stolen. Check with the three credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to see if your child has a credit report, even if they only get junk mail. For a manual search of your child's file, the companies may need copies of your child's birth certificate that lists you as a parent, your child's Social Security card, your government-issued ID, and proof of your home.

Even if there are no signs, you should check your child's credit record when they are around 16 years old. So, if you find out they did something wrong, you can fix it before they apply for a job or loan.

If your kid has been a victim of identity theft, you should write to all three credit reporting companies and ask them to remove all accounts, account inquiries, and collection notices that are linked to your child's name and Social Security number. Ask each reporting agency to put a scam alert on your child's account, and call each business where the information came from. This will help stop scams from happening again in the future.

Visit the Federal Trade Commission's consumer information portal to learn more about how to avoid and deal with child identity theft.

Advice for college students on how to avoid scams

Scammers often try to take money from college students. Learn how to avoid scams to keep yourself and your money safe.

As a college student, you may be handling your money for the first time on your own. Because of this, you might be a tempting target for people who want to steal your money. In fact, a study by the Better Business Bureau found that students who fell for a scam had a 42% chance of losing money, while only 28% of people who weren't students did.

Fraudsters may see you as an easy target, but you can protect yourself from financial scams by learning about common fraud schemes and taking a few safety measures. Cons that go after college students.

Criminals have many different plans, but one check-cashing scam seems to be getting more popular. The Federal Trade Commission says that millennials are 93 percent more likely than people over 40 to have lost money to fake check scams, which are often disguised as a way to make money.

Here's how this trick could work: A stranger could ask you to help them cash a check in person, on campus, or through a social media site like Instagram. This person may say they don't have a bank account and ask if they can use your account to cash the check instead. In return, they might say they'll give you some of the money.

If you agree to cash the check for them or give them your login information, you might not see the results right away. A few days later, though, your bank would probably tell you that you'd cashed a fake check and that the amount had been taken out of your account. By then, the person who stole your money would be long gone, leaving you with an empty bank account and few options for getting the money back.

Other common scams that target college students include fake payment apps, fake credit card offers, fake apartment rentals, and identity theft linked to financial aid applications.

Even though the thought of falling for a financial scam can be scary, there are things you can do to keep yourself and your bank account safe. Start with the following: Don't pay someone else's check.

Don't ever agree to cash a check for someone else, especially if you don't know that person. There's no good reason for a stranger to pay you to place their check, especially since there are services that do that for you. Remember that sometimes the money from a check is given to you before it is cashed. If the check comes back as NSF or fake, you will have to give the money back to the bank. Don't give up.

Take a moment to think about whether the situation makes sense, whether someone offers to pay you for a simple job or you find an apartment that's way cheaper than the market rate. If you think something is too good to be true, it usually is. Make sure your information is safe.

Don't tell anyone else about your bank account, either online or in person. Sharing your login information gives other people the ability to use your account without your permission. Consider it a red flag that you might be working with a scammer if a sudden opportunity asks for personal information like your Social Security number, bank information, your payment app username (like your $Cashtag), or even your college ID information.

You should also change your password and PIN every so often, just like you should keep your personal information secret. Make sure your computer, phone, and other devices are password-protected, and think about using a password manager to keep track of your accounts and passwords. Also, make sure that any hard copies of important papers are kept in a safe place. Pay close attention to your finances.

If you check your account balances often, you may be able to catch any big changes or other strange behavior that might be a sign of fraud right away. You can also sign up for alerts from your bank or credit card company that will let you know right away when a big transaction happens.

You should also check your credit report once a year to see if there are any new accounts in your name or other things that don't seem right.

If you think a person trying to steal your money has talked to you, you should tell the police. In addition to telling the FTC, you should also tell the local cops, your bank, and your university about the possible scam so that they can warn other students. Be ready to give thorough information about how the situation happened.

Tips for staying safe on social media and keeping your data safe

Sharing too much personal information on social media can put your safety at risk.

Social media platforms have become a big way to stay in touch with family, friends, strangers, and coworkers, but there are other people watching, too. Most of the people we don't know who look at our social media pages are just traders and marketers who want to learn more about us and the people we know. There are also hackers, people who steal people's identities, and other bad people at work.

Often, change your passwords.

Usernames and security questions are important puzzle pieces. Check all of them often and make sure they are all up-to-date. Also, make sure you use a different password for each login you make, and if you can, use two-factor security. Lastly, make sure to change your passwords right away if a site has a data breach.

Regularly check your privacy settings.

Most social media sites are making changes to their private settings because people are worried about them. Look at the choices for your own profiles and change them to suit your tastes.

Think about what you want to say before you post.

Before you post something, remember that anyone can see it, including possible employers, advertisers, cybercriminals, and strangers.

Think about the following before posting anything on a social media site:

Does it include private or secret information?

Is it important to tell people you're not home when you're moving, or can it wait until you get back?

Are you happy to share that message with everyone?

Will it make anyone who is tagged feel bad?

Can you use any of the information in it to answer one of your security questions?

Do I have to tell everyone about this, or can I tell a smaller group?

Sign out at the end of each session.

More and more popular social media sites can store your login information and use it to quickly sign you in to other websites and apps on the web. This is handy, but every login gives someone a way to access your personal information, which could be dangerous.

Log out of every account every time to prevent identity theft.

In the end, it's important to keep in mind that everything you do on a social media site can be tracked and that what you do is useful information. Advertisers can buy ads based on things like what people do on Facebook, like watching a video, liking a page, or leaving a message on it. This knowledge is useful for marketers who want their ads to be seen by the most likely customers.

Photo Credit: Sora Shimazaki
https://www.pexels.com/@sora-shimazaki