As millions of Brits get ready to leave for sunnier shores, identity fraud is unlikely to be at the forefront of their minds.
While most will make sure that friends or family will keep an eye on their home, feed the pet and water the plants, few will remember or even realise that they need to protect their online identities while on holiday.
Peter Turner, managing director at Experian Consumer Services, said: “Many of us leave a trail of clues about our absence. Forgetting to cancel the milkman, newspapers, leaving a visible build-up of post on our doormat and even posting our holiday plans on social media sites are all simple yet tell-tale signs to potential burglars and fraudsters that our belongings and valuable personal information is there for the taking.”
In the rush to escape, many will likely forget to do a few simple security checks before leaving their homes.
Here are a few useful tips:
Before you leave home:
• Cancel any deliveries that will sit on your doorstep and alert passers-by of your absence.
• Arrange for a neighbour or friend to regularly pop in and remove post from the doormat.
• Carry out latest security updates on your devices (useful if you’re also taking some of them abroad).
• Back up critical and personal information, over a cloud service or on disk.
• Clear the cache on any devices.
• Switch off your internet router and Wifi – if you’re not at home and no one else is using it, why leave it open to be hacked.
• Advise your bank, credit card and other service providers that you will be away. This will help with financial services keeping track of your money abroad but also protect you against any fraudulent activity at home.
While you’re away:
• Switch off the personal hotspot setting on your mobile devices.
• Only log on to secure Wifi.
• Where possible do not access crucial services such as online banking via your mobile device.
• Do not carry passwords written on a paper or saved on your devices.
• Don’t flash your mobile devices around for all to see. Relax but be sensible.
• Lock up your valuables including important documents such as your passport in a hotel safe if available.
• Be careful what you post on social networking sites before you go and while you are away. A simple message about what a great time you are having can also be an alert that your house is sitting empty for a while; remember that posts on Twitter are completely public and on Facebook it depends on whether you are sharing posts to ‘Friends only’, ‘Friends of Friends’ or ‘Everyone’.
