I run into Brigadiers, Colonels, Captains regularly in the place I live. Yes you guessed it right, I live in an Army colony – and most of the people I meet are retired. So if you are 70+ there is a good chance that you saw the war – 1971 – and they have stories to tell. Like the story yesterday of 2 men bailing out of a military plane (army, not airforce). 2 men in a small low flying plane – which was supposed to find the targets to attack. Plane was shot, both bailed out. One parachute did not open – but he fell on soft sand near the flowing river..AND nothing happened to him. The other guy landed perfectly, but was shot dead by the Pakistani forces. But this Captain had come to me for something else. His personal finances needed a parachute! He had lost some money to a fraud. I realized how vulnerable our senior citizens – even those who went to the front – are to frauds.

Millions of people each year fall victim to identity theft or military scams of some kind. If you fall prey, it can cost you money, time and lots of stress. It happens when you let your guard down. Safeguard your Social Security number, military ID and other sensitive data. See how.

You have to prevent identity theft

According to estimates more than 25 million Americans, including members of the military, were victims of identity theft in 2016 alone. It can take months, even years, to recover. The rigors of military life can make it far more difficult for you to even know and then rectify the problems caused by loss of access to your bank account, Income tax site, mutual fund, etc. See what steps you can take to guard against this.

1. Check your credit. First of all get yourself a small credit card. I have a credit card with Rs. 77000 as the limit. I have been using this card for the past 30+ years! The Maximum I can lose in this card is Rs 77000. You also are entitled to a Free credit report from Cibil and the likes. Keep checking it at least once a year. Make sure that your phone number and your wife’s phone number are BOTH on alert for this card. If you are in a location without much phone connection, at least your wife will be alerted if somebody were to do a transaction on your card.
2. DO NOT use your debit card at all: This may sound counter intuitive to what you have heard so far from others. You could lose far more money if your debit card is lost. Like I have about Rs. 4L in my savings account and 77000 is the max I can lose on my credit card!
3. Install anti-virus, anti-spyware software on all your devices. Update these protections regularly. Keep reasonably complicated passwords and keep changing them. If You are not comfortable with technology keep your bank fd in a bank where you do not use net banking. It might just help.
4. Make sure that you shop online carefully! Use the small credit card – like I said the max you can lose in a card with 77k limit is much lesser than you can lose by somebody breaking into your bank account. Also make sure that you look for the ‘s’ icon in the websites that you deal with and only provide your information on sites that use the secure technology.
5. Do not give any personal information over the phone even to your banker. If anybody wants your personal details ask them to send you an email or come to your house or even better go to the bank or mutual fund office and give it to a manager level person.
6. Make sure that you keep complex passwords and keep changing them, regularly.
7. Don’t give out too much data on the Social media – your travel plans, with whom you are going, etc. can be used smartly by fraudsters to play havoc with your money.
8. As a military person make sure that your spouse is aware of all this, and that she is as careful as you are.
9. You keep getting a lot of phishing mails. Google does a good job of identifying them and warning you, but you need to be more alert than the guy trying to cheat you.
10.  Use strong passwords (a mix of numbers, letters and symbols works best) on your laptop, other devices, and banking and credit card accounts.