Financial Safety: Keeping Your Finances Protected

With the amount of hacking and scams occurring today, it is understandable why many people worry about their finances. Unfortunately, such fraud plans can happen to anyone at any time. Although this can be a nerve-racking topic, it is essential to learn how to protect yourself and your finances.

Never Share Your Passwords

People can be more prone to being scammed when their passwords have been leaked. You never know what can be done with your passwords when someone else has them. So it is crucial that you keep your passwords to yourself and never give them to anyone else. Another area to be cognizant of is where you keep a record of your passwords. It is essential to know your passwords, and you may need to write them down to remember them. Yet if you keep these in a very accessible place, such as on sticky notes around your house, you are advertising them. Consider having them in an organized notebook that you keep in a safe spot in your home. If you prefer to have them digitally, have an online folder password-protected so only you can access them.

Learn About Common Hacking Schemes

To avoid being hacked or scammed, learning about some typically used schemes is crucial. A common scheme that is used very often is receiving a false cheque or links (once opened, the scammer can have access to your full account). Another popular option that scammers use is psing as a company or business and asking for your banking information. Although these schemes may seem obvious, you may not realize them right away when it is happening. Unfortunately for many people, they do not realize that they are being scammed until after it is too late. To avoid a similar situation, knowing about these popular tactics is vital. Consider reading some personal stories of scams that have happened to those in your area. You can also speak with anyone you know that has had a close encounter with a scam. If you are worried that you will not be able to differentiate something legit and a fraud, reach out to your bank or a finance specialist. They will be happy to sit down with you and give you practical information to help keep you financially safe.

Check Your Bank Statements

Something that should be included in your daily schedule should be checking your bank statements. Although this may already be incorporated in day-to-day tasks, paying attention to the details is essential. When examining your bank statements, you should be looking over all your transactions for the month. Of course, you may not remember every small purchase that you made. Yet make sure that you focus on the more significant transactions and ensure that all of these were made by you. When you stay diligent with checking your finances, you can prevent someone from secretly using money from your account.

Shred Important Documents

Discarding banking and financial documents can be easily overlooked. Many may throw it directly into their recycling bin. Once you have your bins outside, these papers are available worldwide. Anyone that walks by can see them and take them. These documents can have personal information, such as your bank accounts, logins, and SIN number. To avoid anyone from getting this, make sure that you use a shredder instead. This will destroy all personal information, yet it will keep scammers away from you. If you do not have a shredder, simply cutting your documents works fine.

Overall, keeping your finances safe can involve a few steps. Yet when you prepare yourself with knowledge of possible threats and implement protective features, you have nothing to worry about!

If you have any questions about other ways to keep your finances protected, please reach out to me!

Sources

-UFCU (2020). Six Ways to Help Keep Your Finances Secure. Retrieved from https://www.ufcu.org/personal/learn/tools-advice/financial-advice/protect-yourself/archive/six-ways-to-keep-your-finances-secure
-Wise, Jackson (2022). The Importance of Money Security: 5 Tips to Protect Yourself. Kasasa. Retrieved from https://www.kasasa.com/blog/identity-theft/5-protection-tips