Filed under: Consumer Ally, Credit Reports, Ripoffs & Scams
This week is Consumer Protection Week, when a group of nonprofits and government agencies come together to highlight critical issues ranging from identity theft to dodgy debt collector practices.
Most consumer protection tips tend to be reactive — telling you how to spot a scam email, for instance, or respond to a collections call. But there are also certain proactive steps you can take right now to head off fraud and financial screw-ups before they even take place.
Here are five actions you can take to protect yourself as a consumer, all of which should take less than five minutes to complete.
1. Turn on Two-Step Verification on Your Email
Security experts will tell you that you should have a different password for every online account you open. But anyone who uses the Internet on a regular basis knows that this is virtually impossible — you likely have dozens of accounts ranging from bank accounts to email to social media to news sites, and you access them on multiple devices.
You have a few options here. One is to use a few strong, unique passwords for your most sensitive accounts and then repeat passwords for non-critical accounts. A better choice is to use a password-management tool like LastPass; you’ll only have to remember one master password, and the program will generate nigh-uncrackable passwords for all of your accounts.
But whichever route you choose, there’s one easy step that you should take now: Enable two-step verification on your email.
Email is in many ways your most important account: When you forget a password to one of your other accounts, the password reset link will be sent to your email. If someone takes over your email, they can reset all the passwords to your other accounts and take them over.
Fortunately, email providers like Gmail now offer what’s known as two-step verification. Enabling this feature means that if someone tries to access your email account from a different computer than you usually use, they’ll need more than just your password — they’ll also need a second one-time password that’s sent to your mobile phone. So unless the hacker has also gotten ahold of your phone, they’ll be unable to get into your account.
Two-factor authentication can be set up in less than 5 minutes. We’d recommend putting it in place for your email and bank accounts.
2. Get on the Do-Not-Call List
If you’re being harassed by a telemarketer, you can always block the call. But let’s be honest: You probably don’t want to hear from any telemarketers, ever, so you might as well exercise your right to block them forever.
If you didn’t get on the do-not-call list when it first came out, don’t fret: You can do it any time, and you can add up to three numbers, including your …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance