Scammers look for all kinds of
ways to get your personal information. We know that they try to take advantage
of disasters to get your personal information and your money. One trend has
been to take advantage of major publicized data breaches. Scammers will call,
claiming to be from or representing a major business whose computers have been
breached. They will offer you credit monitoring, money as compensation or make
some other enticing offer to get you to stay on the phone.
Look out for the following warning
signs:
·
If the caller asks for your sensitive
information, hang up. Any company that keeps your information should already
have it.
·
If they ask for your Social Security Number,
hang up. Social Security Numbers and birthdates are not collected over the
phone. This information can be provided on a form that you mail back to the
company or on a secure website that you have found yourself, not a link suggested
by the scammer.
·
If the caller starts pressuring you to act right
away or claims that you have a short deadline to act, hang up. Legitimate
companies are not going to pressure you when they notify you of a data breach.
Should you receive a letter,
phone call, or email about a data breach you should receive instructions on
what to do. Feel free to call the customer support (the number of which you can
get on an online search) and verify the instructions.
Identity Theft Resource Center:
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