Additionally request additional debit cards which you never use, unless the other debit cards become compromised, so that you have a fall back method. Do not link bank accounts for overdraft protection. If you are paranoid, request replacement cards every six months. Learn more by simply Googling “phone swatting”.Ĭhange your card pin numbers at least as often as every three months.

Unfortunately, many banking institutions do not first offer a verbal “challenge” word, which you should know, before you give up your verbal password! Incoming phone numbers shown on your home phone or cell phone can so easily be faked. Talk to one of your local bank’s representatives to discuss and learn how to implement every additional security measure which they have to offer for you - including receiving email alerts for all transactions above zero cents, and for implementing a verbal password so that your bank can confirm that they are talking to you and nobody else who is trying to impersonate you. After all, education is one of the goals of the AskWoody forum!) It would be nice to turn the following, and to expand on the following in terms of online security.

(Forum mods, please feel free to consider moving and editing all of the following since it really belongs under some sort of Online Security topic. It is far better to be a ghost, in terms of your online identity everywhere and whenever possible, and to make sure that you never use the same password twice anywhere online, than to fall victim to either identity theft or to phishing scams or to robocalls. I have never received one of these kinds of calls because I am extraordinarily careful about what I put “out there” on the Internet or on other public records. The takeaway is that there are really bad people out there online. The other time (around 20 years ago) was from a specific person in Canada, yet again for a comment I made on another forum. Once, for a comment I made here on this forum. The upshot is, do not egg them on in any way. It is best to simply tell them that you don’t have any Windows computers, that you have no issues, thank them for their concern, and hang up. Some of these hackers can turn around and behave in very malicious ways.

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