Being a victim (financial institutions and gov't agencies do not agree with this in the US as they believe that you and I are just a innocent third party and largely they are the ones who have been defrauded) of larger theft after a breach they were able to garner close to six figure fraud in matter of days I whole heartly agree that should check your transactions frequently as possible. While most will make you whole eventually, it nonetheless is an anticipated time-consuming undertaking when you get engulfed in it.
In the US I highly recommend that you look into placing security freeze on your credit files and at ChexSystems at minimum, which now is free for everyone unlike in the past where you were charged fee for it. Those that want to perpetrate fraud have gotten better by surveilling accounts by putting what appears to be a small (in pennies sometimes) "trial" purchases over time to see if they can be caught before making a leap. While financial institutions have very intelligent surveillance systems in place to catch such activities, you are really the best defense for your account. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2023 08:35:57 -0700 > From: Stan Brown <the_stan_br...@fastmail.fm> > To: gnucash-user@gnucash.org > Subject: Re: [GNC] Help with downloading transactions. > Message-ID: <7770b345-5253-7fc6-2edd-15c70d27b...@fastmail.fm> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > On 2023-03-18 06:13, Simon Roberts wrote: > > I feel compelled to add my agreement with Alan. This kind of crime is on > > the rise and we're all vulnerable. > > And that's why it's important to monitor accounts no less often than > every few days -- waiting till the end of the month gives fraudsters too > much time to operate. > > Most banks these days (at least in US) let you configure your account to > send you an email or text notification with the amount every time your > card is used. All that I have used let you specify a minimum transaction > amount for such alerts. IMHO the proper choice of a minimum of one cent. > > > Credit card companies insist on giving > > many fiscally prudent folks much higher credit limits than they actually > > use, and that just adds to the risk. > > It does. But as long as credit scores are higher for people for utilize > a lower percentage of their credit limits, there is a good reason not to > turn down a higher limit if you can get one. (Credit scores can affect > not just loans you may apply for but also whether you can rent an > apartment or get car insurance at normal rates.) > > > Debit cards are worse since the > > protections are far weaker (at least in the U.S.). > > Many banks extend the same protections to their own debit cards that the > law mandates for credit cards, so protection is not necessarily worse -- > in theory. But even in those cases, you're correct in practice since a > fraudulent withdrawal from your checking account via debit card takes > the money out immediately, which may cause legitimate checks or > withdrawals to bounce. > > > I check my data twice monthly with downloads. > > Better than not checking it at all, but IMHO not often enough. > > Stan Brown > Tehachapi, CA, USA > https://BrownMath.com > > > ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
