How Moms Can Protect Help Protect Their Families from Three Specific Types of Fraud

Fraud is certainly a frightening word for most mothers, especially in a day and age where we seem to constantly hear about it all the time in the news.

Although it’s certainly our responsibility to be vigilant, keeping ourselves and our family’s finances safe from fraud is easier said than done. Beyond keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity, it’s important to understand how our own negligence can often result in the biggest fraud headaches.

Below we’ve outlined three types of fraud that many mothers fall prey to and what you can do to avoid them. Keeping these tips in mind will provide you and your family peace of mind and make sure that you’re not leaving yourself prone to a legal or financial nightmare.

Insurance Fraud

If you’re collecting money via an insurance claim, it’s crucial that you don’t become your own worst enemy by unknowingly committing insurance fraud. Whether it’s through a car accident or worker’s compensation, you need to be incredibly clear about your limitations and don’t make the mistake of trying to embellish your injuries.

Sure, it may be enticing to use your claim as an opportunity to spend more time off work or be with your family, but doing so is very much illegal. There is no such thing as a white lie on an insurance claim: you could land yourself in major trouble if you’re caught lying.

Likewise, you could become subject to surveillance by an insurance fraud investigator if your claim is considered to be fishy. Beyond being filmed or watched, your social media and online activity could likewise be tracked to figure out whether or not you’re going beyond your claimed limitations.

Again, even if you aren’t trying to do anything malicious, be sure to state only the facts on any and all insurance claims to avoid committing fraud.

Credit Card Fraud

Credit card fraud impacts millions of people per year despite the recent emergence of chip cards. Although many banks put steps in place to protect their patrons, there’s no denying the annoyance of being locked out of your bank account or having to go revise all of your account information following a fraud scheme.

In short, avoiding credit card fraud requires a keen attention to detail regarding when and where you spend your money.

As a rule of thumb, try to rely less on your debit card if possible as credit transactions are much easier to dispute if something goes wrong. Likewise, use cash while traveling and obviously avoid any potentially shady vendors while you’re out and about. This rings true both online and in real-life where credit card skimmers are becoming more and more common.

Identity Fraud

Identity fraud and credit card fraud often go hand in hand as many thieves use the identity information of their victims to access their cash. Similarly, preventing identity fraud means being careful with your personal information. Many scammers use the social security numbers of their victims as a sort of gateway to access personal accounts.

Whether through face-to-face transactions or electronically, your social security number in particular needs to be kept under lock and key. For example, never provide your social security number to anyone over the phone unless you know exactly what you’re dealing with. Likewise, there’s no need to bring your social security card on vacation with your family.

Fraud is obviously a serious problem for those of us trying to protect the well-being of our families. Keep these tips in your back pocket to avoid any potential fraud frustrations in the future.