12/20/07 Protect YOU!

Protecting YOU! I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Yesterday we began a conversation with Washington State Attorney General, Rob McKenna about keeping your identity safe through the shopping season. It's a problem that exists year round and there are many ways thieves can get at your personal information. Of course having the ability to shop online is a boon to rural areas that may not have access to some of the larger retail store that larger cities do. This time of year especially with lots of online shopping McKenna says there are some things to be mindful of. MCKENNA: Shopping online is generally pretty safe. Frankly I think it's just about as safe as shopping through a catalog, over the phone. First of all you want to make sure you are dealing with a web site that you know and trust. When you go shopping online make sure that you make that choice and you type in the web address or choose it from the favorites that you bookmark on your computer, but you initiate the contact. Never navigate to a website through an email link that promises some special deal. McKenna says there are other things to look for. MCKENNA: Look for the little padlock icon up on the navigation bar to confirm you are on a secure website. The website address should start with http-s for secure as opposed to just http. And then third, use a credit card as you are required to but try not to use a debit card because if there is fraud you are protected by the credit card, it's not your money anyway until you've paid the bill. Debit cards result in money being taken directly out of your account so you are facing more exposure there. So let's say you have been careful but when you open your bill there are a lot of unknown charges. What should you do? MCKENNA: Immediately contact your credit card company and work with them. Often you'll be contacted by them before you even know it's happened because we've all received phone calls from credit card companies just confirming  checking to see whether something that showed up on a report was really us so they're getting a lot better at that but if they haven't already contacted you, give them a call and start the process of making a claim that it was fraud. There is one other very important part that should not be overlooked. MCKENNA: Place a fraud alert on your credit history working with the credit bureau and all the advice I'm giving you is also available online at the Washington State Attorney General Website. We'll walk you through the steps to follow in order to place a fraud alert on your account  to deal with credit card companies and even to freeze your credit history if you want to take that serious step. Don't be afraid to shop online but do take the proper steps to protect yourself, oh, and I wear a medium and my favorite color is blue&just in case& That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.