✦ 𝔻𝕠𝕣𝕖𝕖𝕆𝕙𝕙𝕙𝕙 ✦

God bless America…Land of the FREE, because of the BRAVE!🇺🇸❤️🤍💙 Proud of my Daddy and two brothers who were all Veterans that proudly served in the US Navy and US Air Force during WWII and Vietnam war times. 🇺🇸♥️🤍💙 Happy Veterans Day to all who serve and have served!! Mahalo for your service!!♥️🤍💙🇺🇸

We’re often reminded to watch out for scams and fraud targeting our kūpuna, and rightfully so. Our kūpuna are especially vulnerable, and protecting them should ALWAYS be a priority. But I think we’re overlooking two other groups who may be just as vulnerable: our keiki and our ‘ohana who are naturalized citizens. Identity theft doesn’t discriminate by age or background. And I recently learned about some concerning trends that deserve more attention. I attended a session on identity theft and fraud recently and heard about some of the latest trends in this space. One thing that really stood out was the reported increase in fraudsters buying, selling, and/or stealing NPPI belonging to keiki (children) and naturalized citizens — both living and deceased. I’m not saying this is entirely new stuff at all, but I am saying there’s reportedly increased activity worth being maka’ala to (alert to). NPPI stands for Non-Public Personal Information. Meaning, private information that can identify you personally or financially, including Social Security numbers, government ID numbers, bank account details, and other sensitive information. Why is keiki NPPI particularly valuable to fraudsters? Because the fraud can go undetected for YEARS! Think about it. Parents aren’t typically checking their children’s credit reports, and children generally have little or no established credit history. That can give criminals a clean slate to exploit before anyone realizes something is wrong. I also heard concerns about NPPI belonging to naturalized citizens being exploited for a variety of purposes, including immigration-related fraud and other financial and non-financial criminal activity. So, what can we do to protect our ’ohana? If you have keiki: • Consider freezing their credit, even if they’re too young to have a credit history. • Periodically check whether a credit file exists in their name. • Pay attention if they start receiving unexpected credit card offers, collection notices, or other financial related mail. • Be mindful of what personal information their mobile apps collect and share. • Review app privacy settings and restrict unnecessary access to personal information. • Teach them NOT to share personal information through unsolicited surveys, apps, text messages, or suspicious links. If you have ‘ohana who are naturalized citizens, make sure they’re aware that their personal information may also be a target. Encourage them to be especially cautious about sharing sensitive information and to monitor their financial and personal records. And given the ongoing concerns about border security and the Biden administration’s lack of immigration enforcement, this is another reason to take identity protection seriously. We tend to think about identity theft as something that happens to adults or our kupuna. But clearly, we need to broaden that perspective. Our keiki and naturalized ‘ohana deserve that same level of awareness, attention, and protection. Anyway, I hope someone finds this information interesting or helpful. E kala mai for the EXTRA long post! Just trying to kokua in any way I can. Guard your NPPI! Aloha! 🤓🤙🏽

Go Bills‼️💙♥️🏈