Lisa Madigan Offering Advice To Avoid Becoming Identity Theft Victim
(CBS) -- On the heels of Home Depot's announcement last week of the biggest retail credit breach in history, the Illinois Attorney General is out in the southwest suburbs today talking about identity theft.
Lisa Madigan suggests anyone who's credit information has been compromised should accept free credit monitoring offered by the hacked retailer, but also take steps on their own.
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"There's so much that we can just be doing and we should be doing and it should become routine so that we can catch it because there is a lot of stuff that will happen and if we don't catch it, it can cause real problems," Madigan said.
That includes setting up a transaction alert for your credit and debit cards so you're notified via text of any activity on your accounts and going over online or paper statements for suspicious activity.
The attorney general set up an ID theft unit in her office eight years ago that she says has helped thousands of people get $26 million in fraudulent charges removed. She says a new federal agency is needed to investigate the ever-increasing problem
