05/2019 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE 41PROTECT YOUR
KIDS’ DATA
The federal law that mandates free credit
freezes includes provisions for freezing the credit
records of children younger than 16. If you’re a
guardian or conservator or have a power of attor-
ney for someone—say, an elderly parent—you can
freeze his or her files, too.
If your child doesn’t have a credit report, the
agency must create one and freeze it upon a par-
ent or guardian’s request. You’ll have to send the
request by snail mail with copies of supporting
documents, such as your child’s birth certificate
and your driver’s license. (Freezing a child’s Equi-
fax file, however, has been difficult and confus-
ing for some customers, so you may want to wait
until the agency works out the kinks.)
Children are attractive targets for ID thieves
because it may be years before anyone notices
that a child's identity has been snatched. Take
care to keep track of a child’s PINs because sev-
eral years may pass before the child needs to lift
the freeze, says Velasquez. She advises telling a
trusted family member or friend where to find
your children’s PINs as backup.
Unusual mail in a child’s name—such as pre-
approved credit card offers or debt-collection
notices—is an indication that his or her identity
may have been stolen. Tell your children not
to hand over their personal information online
(or anywhere else) without your permission.says Carl Carpenter,
CEO of security firm
Arrakis Consulting.
Certain issuers—
including Bank of
America, Capital
One and Citi—offer
virtual numbers for
most of their credit
cards. Rather than
enter your card’s real
number when shop-
ping online, you use
a different number
that’s linked to your
card account.
Gas-pump skim-
mers are hard to spot
because they’re typi-
cally installed inside
the machine. Steer
clear of pumps at the
edges of the station.
Crooks are more
likely to place skim-
mers there, where
they can insert the
devices unnoticed.
At the ATM, shield
your hand as you en-
ter your PIN in case
a thief has put a cam-
era on the machine
to capture your PIN
(along with a skim-
mer to record your
card data).
It’s not a bad idea
to get notifications
from your financial
institutions—whether
by e-mail, text mes-sage or through a
mobile app—each
time a transaction
goes through on your
credit or debit card.
Sometimes thieves
make small purchases
to test a card, which
you may not notice
if you receive alerts
only for large trans-
actions. “Some people
say they don’t want
to be bothered. The
truth is, you do want
to be bothered,” says
Adam Levin, founder
of identity-protection
service CyberScout.
Consider paring the
number of payment
accounts you use so
that you have fewer
to track, suggests
Velasquez. If possible,
use a credit card for
most purchases. Le-
gally, your liability for
fraudulent purchases
with a credit card is
capped at $50—and
you’ll owe nothing
if your card number
(but not the card
itself ) is used fraud-
ulently. Plus, the
major card networks
have zero-liability
policies for fraudu-
lent account use, and
credit cards come
with stronger liability
protections than
debit cards. And with
debit and prepaid
cards, you may owe
late penalties and
overdraft fees.What to do if you’re a
victim: Immediately
call your bank or
credit card issuer if
you see unauthorizedtransactions. Or your
bank may notice first
that something is
amiss. You’ll receive
a card with a new
number. If a criminal
used your financial
account’s online log-
in information to
steal funds, change
your username and
your password.
Liability for funds
taken with a stolen
debit card varies
depending on howquickly you report
the issue; you’re
off the hook if your
card number (but
not the physical card)
is stolen and you
tell the bank within
60 days of it sending
your statement. If you
promptly notify your
financial institution,
you’ll likely get the
money back—but you
may have to wait until
the bank processes
your claim.