Lesson 4.2: Fraud, Identity Theft & Protecting Your Information
The Go Further companion to Lesson 4.2 in Money Decisions.
IdentityTheft.gov
The Federal Trade Commission's recovery tool: report identity theft and it builds you a personal recovery plan — the letters, calls and freezes, in order. It also routes you to the three bureaus' free credit freezes.
Key ideas from the lesson
- Scams succeed because they look ordinary — so stop judging the look and judge the ask. Nearly every scam wants one of four things: act now, keep it secret, pay in a weird way (gift cards, crypto, a payment app, wiring money, mailing cash), or give up a code or password.
- The universal move: stop, and contact the source a different way. Open the official app yourself, call the number on the back of your card, or call your family member directly. Never use the link or the number in the suspicious message.
- Protection comes in layers: a different password for every account, kept in a password manager; 2FA turned on; and a credit freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — free, no harm to your score, and a parent can freeze a minor's credit.
- Don't overshare: your birthday, your school and your pet's name are the answers to a lot of security questions.
- If it happens anyway, speed beats embarrassment: dispute the charges, freeze your credit, report it at IdentityTheft.gov, change your passwords, and keep a written log.
Why this helps
Lesson 4.2's advice is “practice what this lesson preaches” — and this is the tool the lesson itself names. IdentityTheft.gov is the federal government's recovery desk: the place the FTC sends real victims, which makes it the one address worth memorizing before you ever need it.
Try this
Open IdentityTheft.gov and read the first steps of a recovery plan — don't file anything. List the first three actions it would have you take. Then check: does it also offer the credit-freeze route Lesson 4.2 describes as layer three?
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