How to Protect Your Identity  

Your personal information is important, and keeping it safe matters. There are simple steps you can take to protect yourself and your family online.

1. Protect Yourself

Change Your Habits

Your daily online habits can put you at risk. Here are a few easy ways to stay safe:

• Use different email accounts for work and personal life.
• Think before you click on links or attachments in emails.
• Create strong passwords and change them often.

Keep Watch

Here’s how to take preventative action when monitoring your identity:

• Check your credit reports four times a year.
• Get your credit reports straight from the credit bureaus.

Account Monitoring Services

Monitor your accounts with a free service like:

• Credit Karma
• Experian Credit Monitoring
• WalletHub

Freeze Your Credit

Freezing your credit is one of the strongest ways to stop fraud.

• In the U.S., you can freeze your credit by contacting Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
• A credit freeze stops criminals from opening accounts in your name.
• It does not affect your credit score.
• You can unfreeze it easily if you need a loan.
• Freeze credit for every family member, even children.

2. Protect Your Family & Home

Keep Kids Safe Online

Help your children stay private and secure with the following steps:

• Make sure their usernames and email addresses don’t include personal information.
• Create strong passwords with numbers, letters, and symbols.
• Use different passwords for different sites.
• Try a password manager so everyone can log in safely without sharing every password.

Pro Tip: Review their apps and turn off location tracking on apps that don’t need it. Remember: the less personal information online, the better.

Use Separate Networks at Home

Set up more than one Wi-Fi network and increase safety with the following networks:

1. Main Network: Work, business, and sensitive tasks.
2. Secondary Network: Kids’ activities, schoolwork, streaming, and social media.
3. Optional Third Network: Smart home devices, if you have many.

Help Elderly or Vulnerable Family Members

Take these steps to safeguard your loved ones’ identity and accounts:

• Add a trusted person to receive account alerts about unusual activity.
• Ask them to meet with a financial advisor to review all online accounts.
• Talk to a lawyer about including digital assets in their estate plan.

How Criminals Steal Identities

Scammers collect lots of personal information to break through security questions like “What’s your mother’s maiden name?” These are called knowledge-based authentication (KBA) questions.

Here’s how criminals build a profile:

1. They buy basic info, like your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth, from the dark web.
2. They use cheap background-check sites to find past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, family members, and even mortgage details.
3. Once they have enough information, they can:

• Access your credit files
• Change your phone number or email address
• Take over bank or investment accounts
• Open new credit cards
• Take out loans in your name

Often, people don’t find out until the damage is already done.

You don’t have to be an expert to protect your identity. With strong passwords, careful online choices, and a little teamwork at home, you can keep your information safe. Staying aware and taking action now makes a big difference later.