Consumer Alert: Protecting your data in less than five minutes

Deanna Dewberry News10NBC

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Think about all the times you’ve used your credit or debit card in the past few weeks. This is the best time of the year for cyberthieves, but you already have the tools to protect yourself. That’s the topic of this consumer alert.

The steps are easy. Deanna did it all in less than five minutes. There are three things in life we can count on – death, taxes, and your data will be compromised. Just two months ago there was a huge data leak of MC2, a company that does background checks. That breach compromised the data of 100 million Americans, including our social security numbers. And certainly, we expose ourselves to the possibility of cyber-crime every time we click the buy button.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t shop online. But after you make a purchase, lock your card. To do that, you need to download the app. On your home page, you should see “manage account.” Tap that. On the next page, you’ll see the option to lock and unlock your card. Experts suggest you keep your credit cards locked until you want to use them.

The folks with the technology website, CNET, say you need to check your credit reports as well.

“There are steps you can take to protect yourself like putting fraud alerts on your credit report, freezing your credit which is something I did earlier this year, and it’s just great,” said Danni Santana, a personal finance editor for CNET. It’s free. It’s simple. Anytime I want to open a new credit card account, I just thaw my credit, and I’m good to go.”

Congress passed legislation in 2018 that now allows you to freeze and thaw your credit for free. If your credit is frozen, cyber thieves who have your social security number and other information will not be able to open lines of credit in your name. If you ask the credit bureaus to freeze it by phone or online, they must do it within one business day. And when you need to open a line of credit, you ask for a credit thaw. If you do it by phone or online, the law mandates that the bureaus lift the freeze within one hour.

Here are links and phone numbers to each of the bureaus to freeze your credit online: