It is a feeling of dread and tremendous anxiety when you lose your wallet or have recently found out someone has been using your card online.
The darkness swirls around you, you feel lost and confused and don’t know what to do. Here are some simple ways to start.
First, know what is in your wallet and file a report with the police. If your wallet is stolen or just plain lost filing a report it makes it easier for you to file a claim with the credit card companies. By knowing what is in your wallet it makes it easier to tell the police what is missing.
Second, call the credit card companies immediately after your police report. By telling them you have filed a report and that your wallet is missing or stolen. You stand a better chance of stopping purchases and keeping your credit score intact.
Third, keep hope. Mostly keep hoping that you will find your wallet in a strange place; like the freezer, or that the police will turn up with your wallet and nothing is missing.
When it comes to the internet it is easy to fall for a spammer’s trap. The easiest thing to do is protect your passwords and know what e-mail you use for paypal ebay or various other websites.
Just today I was presented with this problem. I received an e-mail from what appeared to be paypal, but it wasn’t sent to the e-mail address I signed up with. As a matter of fact I have not created a paypal account. What I did was double checked the e-mail’s legitimacy. I looked at the sender’s name carefully and noticed that the e-mail had actually come from another e-mail account that was poypal.com. Immediately I marked it as spam and deleted it, which is exactly what everyone should do. Check the sender’s e-mail address, if it is not from who they say they are mark it as spam and delete it.
This is the common way for malicious people to nab your accounts and use them. As soon as you give the perpetrator verification that your e-mail is a legitimate one and give them the most valuable information of all-your password they can do all the damage they want.
Another way that people end up losing their identities and credit information is the infamous Trojan Horse virus. For this you should always keep your anti-virus software up to date and run it daily, because there are more than one Trojan Horse viruses out there. I have been to a few websites that were infected and thankfully my anti-virus alerted me before I gave out my information on the website. I immediately shut down my web browser and turned my computer off for three to five days. It was a good thing that I had for most anti-virus programs will have the innoculation for any new trojan horse virus in that ammount of time. Once I turned my computer on and had the anti-virus sweep my computer the Trojan horse virus that had made it’s way onto my computer was removed. As was the one from the website I was infected from.
Another tip to keep your computer safe is to always delete your cookies before closing out your web browser. It’s quite simple for PC users you go up to the word Tools click on it then scroll down to and click on Internet Options then click Delete and click Delete All. When the little dialog box comes up and asks you if you want to delete files and settings stored by add-ons put a check mark in the box and click yes. Phishing software and Viruses like to hide in your cookie files and usually attach themselves to your computer when you have an add-on program that stores files and settings. By removing them early you have a better chance of keeping your information.
These tips are meant to relieve the pressure of the swirling darkness that comes with the loss of your credit cards or credit card information. Please use caution when you are on the Internet and try to remain hopeful when you think all is lost, you are the biggest part in keeping your credit intact.