Empyrion Wealth Management

Fraud can happen to anyone at anytime.   Below are the top 10 items you can do this month to protect yourself from fraudulent activity.

• Instruct all banks and brokerages not to make any changes to your accounts unless they are made by you, in person, while presenting 2 valid forms of government identification with picture affixed.
• Immediately change all electronic credentials to non-descript passwords that have never been used before and would not have any reasonable connection to you and or your lifestyle. Further, 2-factor authentication must be incorporated.
• For those that use corporate email for personal use, a cybersecurity analysis must be conducted to ensure that malicious code has not been uploaded into current files, email, and calendars.
• Consider placing your credit card on a security freeze which will prevent lenders (including credit card companies) from pulling your credit report. This will prevent new lending accounts from being started in your name. The downside, when you legitimately need a credit line – car lease, etc. – you need to unfreeze the credit bureaus, this can take up to 3 days.
• It’s highly suggested you place your credit on a fraud alert that will notify you on all new inquiries. Further, you can place limits on all credit cards requiring the company to request your permission prior to approving purchases over the amount you designate.
• Review all banking and credit card activity once/week.
• Send a written request to the Driver’s License Bureau of your state of residence to place a “Verify ID Flag’ placed on your driver record.
• Order copies of your passport records from the U.S. Department of State, Office of Law Enforcement Liaison, 44132 Mercure Cir, PO Box 1227, Sterling VA 20166. Passport records may consist of applications submitted for the issuance of a passport or other records such as a Consular Report of Birth, a Certificate of Witness to Marriage, a Certificate of Loss of Nationality, or a Consular Report of Death.