It’s easy, and you will feel better
Please take a look at what’s in our freezer today: slivered almonds, a pound of Italian sausage, Oatmeal bread, grated parmesan cheese, a quart of homemade chicken broth, and a half pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia that won’t last the day.
I trust you.
However, we lock our doors to keep burglars from coming in and stealing our Cherry Garcia. As you know, crooks no longer have to invade homes to steal something valuable. A month ago, I wrote about a guy who stole my debit card information in Washington, DC.
Scammed Under the Washington Monument by an Ice Cream Man
And what I learned
This creep took $41.34 from me, reimbursed by the credit card company. In today’s world, personal information theft is more costly than Cherry Garcia burglaries. (source). It probably has or will happen to you. And to me, again.
A few months ago, a friend Mark (not his real name), received a payment book for a Harley Davidson Motorcycle purchased in his name with money borrowed from a Cincinnati bank. Mark estimates he spent 30 hours on the phone filling out reports with Harley Davidson, the bank, and his local police department. Eventually, he signed a form from the bank that released him from the fraudulent loan.
Mark has yet to learn how the villain got his full name, address, social security, and login number for the credit agency. But he took a straightforward step to ensure this did not happen again. Instead of 30 hours, it took him 30 minutes. He suggested I do the same, and yesterday I did.
I went to each website of America’s three credit reporting agencies, linked below.
I created an account for each, with a username and password. I then followed the well-marked steps to freeze the credit reports issued by each of these agencies. There is no cost to freezing your credit. No unauthorized party can open a credit line using my personal information.
Tomorrow, if I want to borrow money to buy a new freezer to store more Cherry Garcia in my garage, I will log in to each and lift the freeze for the day. I can even schedule a freeze-pause ahead of time.
And then, I will purchase a security system for my garage.
