Although the holidays are over and consumers see a spike with scams during that time it still is important to not let your guard down when it comes to keeping your personal information safe. Carbon County Sheriff Jeff Wood offered some tips on his weekly update as to how to keep personal information secure.

“So, one of the first things you can do is to make it harder for people to get credit in your name. So, they’ll get your information, start running a credit card up and by the time you figure it out it’s too late,” stated Wood. It is important to notify the credit card issuer that the account is fraudulent, file an identity theft report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consider a fraud alert or credit freeze, review credit reports, dispute fraudulent information with credit bureaus and don’t delay taking these steps as it could make a bad situation even worse.

This day and age a lot of consumers do a lot of their banking, purchasing, paying of bills online which is quick and convenient but if not protected this could put accounts in jeopardy. “You can put passwords on your devices. Make sure that your cell phone, laptop or anything you carry around is password protected and if you don’t require a password to log in it just gives access instant to everything you have,” explained Wood.

Do not use the same password for multiple accounts as it can compromise your data and never put personal information into a public computer such as those available at libraries, airports, hotels and cafés. If individuals can enable security options offered on their online accounts it’s best to take those extra precautions to keep accounts and personal information secure.

To keep informed on what is taking place at the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office visit their Facebook page.