Personal Finance
Credit card fraud is the most common form of identity theft (with 133,015 reports in the US in 2017 alone), and a total loss of $905 million, which was a 26% increase from the previous year. The with a median amount lost per person was $429 in 2017. It's more important than ever to take basic steps to protect yourself from falling victim Note about credit cards: Credit cards have technological methods in place to detect and stop some fraudulent transactions. Major payment processors implement this, by mining huge amounts of data from their card holders, in order to know a great deal about each persons spending habits. This data is used to identify fraud, but is also sold onto other data brokers. Credit cards are therefore good for security, but terrible for data privacy.
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| Done? | Advice | Level | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
Essential | Enable fraud alerts and credit monitoring through Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to be alerted of suspicious activity. | ||
Essential | Prevent unauthorized credit inquiries by freezing your credit through Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. | ||
Optional | Utilize virtual card numbers for online transactions to protect your real banking details. Services like Privacy.com and MySudo offer such features. | ||
Optional | Pay with Cash for local and everyday purchases to avoid financial profiling by institutions. | ||
Optional | Opt for privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Monero for online transactions to maintain anonymity. Use cryptocurrencies wisely to ensure privacy. | ||
Advanced | Securely store cryptocurrencies using offline wallet generation, hardware wallets like Trezor or ColdCard, or consider long-term storage solutions like CryptoSteel. | ||
Advanced | Purchase cryptocurrencies without linking to your identity through services like LocalBitcoins, Bisq, or Bitcoin ATMs. | ||
Advanced | Use a bitcoin mixer or CoinJoin before converting Bitcoin to currency to obscure transaction trails. | ||
Advanced | For online purchases, consider using alias details, forwarding email addresses, VOIP numbers, and secure delivery methods to protect your identity. | ||
Advanced | Opt for deliveries to non-personal addresses such as PO Boxes, forwarding addresses, or local pickup locations to avoid linking purchases directly to you. |