Worried about online fraud? Sure, who isn’t, but keeping your information safe on your computer actually isn’t that hard. Just keep your virus scan software up to date, use an anti-spyware program and use a firewall. And you may want to avoid any shady websites.
But what about offline? I personally don’t think enough people worry about offline fraud. A few years ago, Javelin Research found that despite fears about online fraud, more fraud was actually committed offline than online. Part of the reason is our personal information is too accessible. And guess where it’s accessible? The mailbox!
Think about your mailbox for a minute…
The typical mailbox is a very low-to-no security miniature house where we sometimes place secure information. What do you receive in the mailbox? Letters? Not so much anymore, but many of us still tend to receive our bills, credit card applications and financial statements in there.
What do we send out? Many things I suppose, but I’d like to address the bills that are sent out from the mailbox. When you place a bill in the mailbox to go out you put up the red flag, right? That tells the mail carrier that there is indeed mail to be picked up. Well, the mail carrier isn’t the only one who can see that red flag. To any would-be thief, that red flag says, “Hey, look! Presents.”
So, what’s the solution here? Get a PO Box? Send out your bills from the post office? That may reduce the risk a little, but, as unfortunate as it is, not all mail reaches its destination. Whether it gets misplaced or stolen, it still leaves your information out there.
The solution is perhaps easier that we think. Keep your bills out of your mailbox. If the personal information doesn’t get sent through the postal system, it’s not accessible to grabbing hands and prying eyes. If we do that in conjunction with keeping our computer safe, we’ll go a long way to preventing identity fraud.
Now, this is the part where I tell you about online bill pay. Truliant’s service is called Easy Pay and is conveniently and securely located inside of Online Banking. What makes Easy Pay better than sending (and receiving) your bills through the mail?
- Most payments are sent electronically. That means there’s never a piece of mail to be lost, let alone to be stolen.
- Payments that are sent by check do not include your checking account info. They have the checking account routing number, transit number and signature of our bill pay provider. Not all bill pay services do this, so if you use another service you may want to check on that.
- You can set up many of your bills to be delivered electronically from your biller to Easy Pay, allowing you to keep it out of the mailbox. Even if your company can’t deliver e-bills to our bill pay system, they may have a paperless option you can choose to stop those bills from arriving at your home.
If the security features are not enticing enough, here are some other non-security related benefits:
- You are in complete control. You choose who gets paid, how much they get paid and when the payment is sent.
- Easy Pay is offered to our members at no cost when they sign up for eStatements and direct deposit, so you’re saving on stamps and envelopes as well as preserving your tongue from nasty glue and paper cuts.
- Payments arrive within 2 business days for electronically sent payments and within 5 days for mailed payments. If, for some reason, your payee says it’s late or they “lost” the payment, we will resolve the issue on your behalf with your payee. That means you don’t have to sit on the phone with your payee and explain that it was lost in the mail.
- Make all you payments from one website instead of logging into all of your payees websites individually.
So, what are you doing to keep your offline information safe? If you haven’t started using a online bill pay service or paying your bills directly at the billers’ websites, why not?
