14 Comments
User's avatar
Collette Greystone's avatar

I had my identity stolen. It was a nightmare. One thing you might mention is that freezing your accounts at the credit bureaus only lasts for a year and then you have to go back and do it again the following year.

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Jason Rowe's avatar

Great point thank you

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Josephine (Effie)'s avatar

I froze my credit at all three bureaus, and that's forever - unless you unfreeze it. Maybe there is a difference between a lock and a freeze? I'm seeing that here:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/credit-lock-and-credit-freeze

But my freeze is in place years later, and I never went back to freeze it again, and I have to unfreeze it whenever I need to have my credit checked.

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Denise's avatar

To what extent would the privacy toolkit apply to UK-based individuals, Jason?

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Jason Rowe's avatar

Great question so most of it is very general so it will apply. 2 of the guides I have added sections which are specific for UK. This is the Opting out of data brokers guide and the identity theft prevention guide. I have the UK specific institutions listed as the process for both is quite different in the US and UK. I have a good number of UK subscribers in my audience which sparked me to make these adjustments.

I hope that helps in your decision.and of course if you need anything clarified or have any questions you can feel free to reach out to me as well. Always happy to help

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Denise's avatar

Thank you for the speedy reply. I shall find those guides and read them.

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Serg's avatar

People must realize that their digital footprint is an attack surface, just like having too many doors on a house. At some point, you will leave one open.

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Noeline moon's avatar

I want these emails to stop. I can open your info on the substack app Ive downloaded. Please stop the emails. Many thanks

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Jason Rowe's avatar

That’s something you have to set on your end. When I post it automatically sends an email, that’s how substack works. You can go into the email and unsubscribe, it will give you the option to stop emails.

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Misty S. Bledsoe's avatar

Physical Yubi keys have thwarted more than one attempt in the last 12 months on my end. I've angered a few people. I have both fraud alerts and freezes on my credit bureaus. Once Equifax/Experian had that giant data breach several years ago, it was all over back then. All our info is leaked. We can only put more barriers in place to stem the damage to prevent it going forward.

Also, call or go into your banking institution and add a password or phrase to your account for call-in help. That way if someone calls to access your accounts, they also have to provide a the correct word or phrase.

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Jen's avatar

Does this advice apply to Australian based people?

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Jason Rowe's avatar

Most of it will for the preventative measures but some of the institutions are probably different. Like for freezing credit etc. you would need to look at Australia specific institutions that deal with credit or identity theft. I can do some research for you and let you know if you’d like.

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M Gazelle's avatar

Can you provide more info about how your tool kit works and if it’s easy to understand?

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Elmbutcher's avatar

Move in to a cave, a deep cave.

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