Credit Freezes and Credit Reports in Oregon

I was reading the September 2008 Consumer Reports and their story, “ID Leaks: A Surprising Source is Your Government at Work,” reminded me that I wanted to post about their Consumer’s Union “How to Protect Yourself” guide, their Financial Privacy Now website.

(And don’t forget to check out their blog.)

This is nothing new for a lot of you, but it doesn’t hurt to include the information on this blog too:

1) To order your free credit report (3 of them actually- stagger them to check your credit report free 3x a year): visit annual credit report dot com. Do NOT connect to this site from any email that is sent to you. Always connect to it directly or from a reliable site, for example, the Federal Trade Commission webpage (a dot gov site) or Consumer’s Union, which has additional trustworthy websites.

2) Never click without mindfulness. Are you where you want to be? If the website you visit is charging to get a copy of your free annual credit report copy, you are probably at a commercial website. Take your fingers off the keyboard, pay attention to what you are doing, and go to one of the trustworthy sites that will connect you or give you the correct URL.