 TITLE: What Is Credit Fraud? CONTENT: How to Avoid Credit Fraud\n-------------------------\nThe pervasiveness of credit fraud and the ever-evolving methods criminals use to steal personal data make it critical to safeguard your credit information, including credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, and personal credentials such as your Social Security number.\nMeasures you can take to safeguard your info include:\n*   **Staying skeptical**: Be wary anytime you're asked to supply any sensitive information via email, phone call, text or instant message. The communication may appear to come from a trusted source, but the institutions you deal with regularly—including banks and credit unions, credit card issuers, the IRS and the Social Security Administration—already know your account numbers; they wouldn't be asking you for them, even if they were trying to verify your identity. If in doubt, contact the organization in question yourself by phone or their online accounts to verify the communication is legitimate.\n*   **Browsing securely**: When shopping online, make sure your browser connection to the merchant is secure and encrypted (look for an \"https\" at the beginning of the web address), and avoid using open public Wi-Fi networks (those without passwords), which thieves can easily monitor and troll for important data.\n*   **Protecting yourself from prying eyes**: Take care to shield the keypad when you enter your account PIN, and when possible, use credit cards with data chips, which are more difficult to skim than swipe-only cards.\n*   **Keeping your voice down**: When in public, avoid speaking account numbers and your Social Security number out loud. For instance, if you decide to pay your bills by phone while hanging out in public, use your phone's keypad, rather than voice prompts, to enter account numbers, PINs and other information. If you're dealing with someone in person, consider asking if there's a way you could enter the information into their system yourself, without speaking it aloud.\nGuarding your data is crucial, but because criminals can sometimes get personal data via large-scale data breaches that affect thousands of consumers at once, it's also important to continually watch for signs of unauthorized activity on your credit and other financial accounts:\n*   **Check your credit card statements carefully each month.** Keep tabs on all your accounts, even the ones you don't use regularly. Make sure you recognize all transactions, and if you're uncertain about any, call the card issuer to learn more. Lenders also have a stake in avoiding credit fraud, and can assist in checking out any suspicious activity on your accounts.\n*   **Review your credit reports for unfamiliar credit checks and new accounts.** If you see any entries that you don't understand, use the contact information included for each creditor to inquire about what's going on. If accounts you didn't authorize have been set up in your name, the creditors will begin investigating. You should also file a report with appropriate law enforcement organizations and take steps to secure your credit files (see below).\n*   **Consider using a credit monitoring service.** Monitoring services can notify you when a lender requests a copy of your credit report or credit score, or when new loan or credit card accounts are added to your credit file. Experian offers a free service that monitors your Experian credit file, and subscription identity protection services that monitor your credit files at all three national credit bureaus and add a variety of other fraud-detection benefits. END