November 14 – 20, 2021 is International Fraud Awareness Week. As the holiday season is upon us, be sure to secure your accounts and protect your personal information. Here are some ways to help combat fraud this holiday season from Jim Simon, TCM Bank, N.A.’s EVP, Chief Administrative Officer & Chief Credit Officer.
- With air travel seemingly rebounding to pre-pandemic levels for the holiday season, be sure to prepare for your travels. Start by setting travel indicators on your credit cards. Additionally, think about putting a freeze on your cards while not in use, through the mobile app provided by your card issuer. TCM Bank consumer cardholders can download MyCard Mobile, and turn their cards on and off in the app.
- If you haven’t already, set it up Informed Delivery Service with the Postal Service. This service provides an emailed copy of the envelopes to be delivered to your mailbox each day. This helps to ensure that you get all of the mail for that day and can highlight the fact that a piece of mail may have been hijacked. Signing up for this service also “locks” your mailing address to your email address with the Postal Service and prevents others from attempting to perpetrate fraud using your address.
- If you use free Wi-Fi while at the airport, make sure that you have a VPN solution running on your device, so it will encrypt your communications. If you do not have VPN capabilities, consider using your phone as a hotspot and linking your device to your hotspot instead. This will give you an added layer of protection. Also be wary of the shoulder surfers that surround you while you wait for your plane. While not everyone is a fraudster, it only takes one to cause havoc while you are traveling.
