I’ve been victim of cyber crime, mainly whereby crooks steal my bank card number and make purchases with it. I’m trying to cut down on such purchases and try not to store my account online.
Ideas: Memorize security number (on back of card), place paint over it; Beware of restaurants whom you hand over card to; Always ask credit card or bank for refund.
This never happened to me when I used personal checks, however checks listed my address and phone number.
Speaking to the group: Look up stats on identity financial crime, you’ll be shocked how high it is. I just don’t hear much about what is being done to mitigate it.
The stats are compilations of people who go to the trouble to report the crime to the FTC, FCC or local LE. It excludes those who do not report attempts or being victimized, so high as the stats are the real number of scams and frauds is much, much larger.
And, of course, there is little to no investigation or prosecutions of scammers by any government authorities. For a while, I made an effort to report the scam calls made to me to FCC and FTC. After making more than 200 reports, I stopped as I never heard ANYTHING from the FCC or the FTC both of which claim to be the federal enforcement agency combatting scam phone calls and enforce the “do not call” registry (which is a joke).
Openly and transparently admitting to billions of 4th Amendment right violations every single day. Just more proof that our politicians and the people running these programs are the most prolific criminals in the world. By far.
So once when I looked up my name online, I was unpleasantly surprised to find much of my personal information. I looked at those websites who held and shared my data, and saw there were ways to contact them, email, addresses, and phone numbers. I chose to call them by phone, so as to minimize my own paper trail. I actually got a hold of some of them and by phone, I asked them to remove me from their data bases. A week or so later when I looked up my name again, I was no longer listed.
Not sure how long that will last, but glad I was able to manage that.
A while back, I do remember contacting the entities supposedly allowing me to ask I be on the do not contact lists: Do not call, do not mail. I asked they omit me so as to cut back on telemarketers. Not sure how much that all worked in my favor.
Unfortunately, the more our phone number gets out there, we become targets for text messaging ads. When I get one, I first add it to my “block” calls, then I report and delete it. I’m at risk when I buy something if they require a phone number.
I know you are well versed, so I’m kinda speaking to the group here as a whole. It’s amazing that USCCA is nation wide. Be well.