Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

  Information is brought to you by Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties What Identity Thieves Want from Your Facebook Profile Social media is just that—social. And a big part of it is sharing photos when you’re out celebrating something, such as your birthday. However, these two things—photos of yourself and your date of birth—can be all someone needs to steal your identity and start opening bank accounts, credit cards and other things in your name. Frank Abagnale, a famous fraud-prevention specialist, has said that “98 percent of stealing a person’s identity is just finding their date of birth and an image of them.” While you may not want to delete every photo of yourself from Facebook, or leave your birthday off your profile page, you can at least limit who sees them. Hiding Your Date of Birth Click on your name and then click on the About tab. On the left are several categories that you can edit. Click on Contact and Basic Info to get to your birthd...

  Information is brought to you by Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties What to Do If You Think You're a Victim of Identity Theft Identity theft is continuing to skyrocket thanks to the proliferation of online shopping and the sharing of personal information with companies and financial institutions alike. In fact, hundreds of millions of people have had their data stolen. This can occur through massive breaches of banks, stores and other businesses, or a dishonest person can misuse data that was disclosed on medical forms, employment records or other documents. Identity theft can be devastating. Thieves can open fraudulent accounts, make purchases with existing accounts, or empty bank accounts altogether. Victims often don’t realize there’s a problem until criminals have been misusing their accounts for weeks or longer. Call Your Creditors If you notice an unauthorized charge on a credit card, contact the bank immediately to dispute it. It’s possible ...