How do you prevent fraud for yourselves?

[QuarterMillionMan]

Do you subscribe to an identity theft program such as Life Lock or other similar service. Do you monitor your own credit report? I found that with a little bit of work that I can do it myself for free. Every 90 days you can place a fraud alert to all 3 credit reporting agencies for free. I went one step further and placed freezes on all 3 of my credit agencies (at $10 per freeze). Unfreezing will cost an additional $10 each but I don't foresee opening a new credit card or loans in my near future. Another thing that I have done is to "manage alerts," on my checking/savings accounts and credit card accounts. Whenever a transaction occurs I receive an instant email notification alerting me of all transactions. Withdrawals and purchases especially is my main concern and instantly thereafter I receive an email notification whenever one occurs. For one of my credit cards as well when I make online purchases it generates a virtual credit card number that links to my real credit card to complete the purchase. See Citibank's website for more information about that one. And lastly, I carry an ATM card, not a debit card. I just feel a little bit safer with an ATM card that has a daily limit of $300 and cannot be used at POS terminals if lost/stolen along with my PIN. A debit card can be use at say Home Depot to buy a $3000 refrigerator, an ATM card cannot. I was curious as to what other safety precautions others here use to protect themselves against fraud.

[marvholly]

i seldom use credit cards-mostly pay cash (also keeps me on budget)
I ONLY use my bank's ATM to get cash, not others or purchases
My online billpay account is at a TOTALLY different bank from where my paychecks are auto deposited. I feed it w/a manually deposited check from the auto deposit account
I have a single, separate credit card I use for ALL online purchases

[kork13]

I generally take a somewhat lessez-faire attitude toward all that, but I do use simple measures to protect myself. A decent cross-cut shedder is only $40 or so -- great investment. All of my mail & most of my other paper trash is shredded. I also arrange for all statements & other financial documents to be delivered electronically. That way there's no paper trail. Plus, the biggest one, I actually READ my bank/credit card statements (apparently not common), so I can look for any abnormal transactions .... Though really, I check most of my accounts online at least weekly, so little chance of something slipping through for very long. Otherwise, I just get my free credit report every 4 months, & now I can check my credit score for free through a couple of my credit cards (Discover & Barclays)

[QuarterMillionMan]

Another strategy that I employ is whenever I have to input my P.I.N. in public such as an ATM or cashier's terminal I block the keypad with my body and I cup my hand to cover the keypad so that if someone is behind me that they cannot see my PIN. I even try to make sure that the cashier who is in front of me can not see me entering my PIN by covering the keypad while I enter my PIN. Sometimes I observe people in line in front of me enter their PIN without taking any precautions, not that I could figure out their PIN or even try to exploit or compromise their security but better to be safe than sorry.

[feh]

Do you subscribe to an identity theft program such as Life Lock or other similar service.

Nope. I use mint.com daily; I'm aware of all financial transactions in all of our accounts. I review our credit reports every year or two. I don't use debit cards.

That's good enough for me.

[Retired To Win]

I check my credit report on one of the free services quarterly.

I've got a free credit report activity alert service that emails me anytime there's activity.

I ABSOLUTELY make sure that I don't hand off my credit card to a server at a restaurant (or anywhere else) because that's one major way that credit card numbers -- along with the safety 3-digit codes -- get stolen.

And I review all my credit card statements closely. By law, I am NOT responsible for any fraudulent charges (and neither are you). Anytime that happens, I report them to the credit card and they handle it -- including issuing me a new credit card.

[snafu]

@ QMM, It's smart to use free access to reporting agencies to verify credit file is correct. Have you had your identity stolen? Have you been notified of an unauthorized transaction by the reporting agencies? Do people really attach their PIN to their card in spite of all the warning?

The research consistently report consumers are at greatest financial risk via banks and government agencies accidentally revealing sensitive data. Some people are careless to the point of ridiculous leaving cards in machines or at commercial outlet. That add on insurance for CCs is a marvellous, newer, income stream for the big providers. It's similar to the rip off insurance provided by car rental agencies. I'm assuming that SA participants have a rider on their vehicle insurance to cover auto rental.