With the recent news of the Heartbleed Bug and my first instance of fraud, I’ve really thought about the possible consequences of having my online accounts hacked recently. It dawned on me that I at some point in time, I have put really important information of mine on the Internet, and that if it gets in the wrong hands, I could actually be really screwed. A lot of people, like myself, store things like our credit card number into websites we trust, all out of convenience. The truth is that it is convenient to not have to type in all of your passwords and numbers, but all it takes is one bad situation for you to regret using that convenience.
Just two weeks ago, I had my first instance of credit card fraud. My Bank of America account had 14 different charges from China for a total of $375. For me, that’s quite a bit of money, so I was pretty upset and worried. I immediately called Bank of America, waited 30 minutes on the phone, reported it, cancelled my card, and a week later got my new card in the mail with a letter saying that they would give me a refund. I’m lucky that I reported it quickly, but even luckier that it ended up so civil and that the bank didn’t fight me for the money. Being proactive about it not only stopped it from continuing to happen, but also saved me all the time, stress, and money of trying to fight it later on.
Being in the age of technology and using the Internet to purchase items or services, you often forget that your credit or debit card is actually a piece of plastic that is linked to hundreds of pieces of paper that determine the type of lifestyle you live. If someone were to steal your wallet in person, you’d either chase them or call the police immediately, but when someone steals your identity over the internet, you often don’t know until you get billed for things you didn’t buy or your credit score takes a massive hit. That’s when it’s too late.
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Identity theft includes misuse of an existing credit card, bank account, or any other personal information that is important to you. In the United States alone, an average of 11,571,900 people are victims of identity theft annually, and in 2013, Americans lost a total of $21 billion due to it.* 7% of American households have reported some sort of identity theft, and as the Internet grows, those numbers will only continue to grow.
With all of that being said, I advise you to change your passwords regularly, check your bank accounts everyday, and never store your most important personal information on any website. The pro of convenience is severely outweighed by the con of fraud in this situation, and if you don’t have money on those cards you’ve saved, you aren’t going to be able to buy anything anyway.
*Statistic from http://www.statisticbrain.com/identity-theft-fraud-statistics/
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The post The First Time I Got Hacked Online appeared first on The Smile Lifestyle - Phroogal.
