Two-Factor Authentication

A few days ago I received an e-mail from my credit card company asking if I had made a certain charge. I had not and so they cancelled my card and overnighted me a new one. In the 30 years I have had that credit card, I had never had a single fraudulent charge. Unfortunately the e-mail I received was the second such e-mail in about a month's time. That means someone used my card a month ago and somehow received my new credit card number and pertinent information to do the same thing again. How do I know it was the same person or organization? Well both fraudulent charges were to the same company, which is more than a coincidence. Fortunately my credit card company caught the theft and I didn't have to worry about disputing the charge.

I find it very interesting that a credit card I have had for 30+ years suddenly became compromised. It had me concerned about all of my other financial interests. After all if someone could get my credit card number so easily, what about my other cards or my bank account. The first thing I did was to enable two-factor authentication for all of my online financial accounts. That means that even if someone is able to break my fairly complicated password, they won't be able to get into my accounts unless they also manage to steal my mobile phone.

Two-factor authentication relies on two methods of verifying you are who you say you are. The first locked door is your password. The second locked door is associated with a physical device such as your phone or computer. When I log into my bank account, I can't complete logging in until I provide a very temporary unique code that has been sent to one of my phones. Should I get a notification on my phone that I didn't initiate, I can immediately lock my account before anything nefarious happens.

With online theft happening more and more, I highly suggest setting up two-factor authentication for all of your online financial access. This includes banks, credit cards, brokerage accounts, and any other account that has access to your money. While it is not foolproof, it is another layer of protection that could save you some serious heartache.