Protect the file from fraud
Reduce the chance that someone opens or misuses credit in your name.
Your Source for a Truly Free Credit Report
From Federal Trade Commission. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
Use the primer to establish context, then complete the original practice below.Understand the idea before touching the steps.
Monitoring tells you after something moves; a freeze can help stop new-credit access before it starts.
Follow these steps in order.
Take the action in each step; then use the deliverable below to prove the lesson is finished.
- 1
Secure financial email and accounts with unique passwords and phishing-resistant multifactor authentication where available.
- 2
Set transaction, login, balance, and new-inquiry alerts.
- 3
Learn the difference between a credit freeze, fraud alert, and paid credit lock before choosing.
- 4
Keep recovery information and bureau freeze credentials in a secure place separate from your everyday device.
Your deliverable
A personal credit-defense checklist with alerts, freeze status, and recovery contacts.
Watch for this
Buying expensive monitoring while leaving email, phone, and bureau access weak.
Prove it—don’t just recognize it.
You know which control prevents new access, which one signals risk, and how to recover each account.
Quick knowledge check
Answer from the lesson—not from confidence alone. Score at least 2 of 3 to unlock completion.
This curriculum-aligned check is scored automatically and stored with your account when signed in. It is an objective learning signal, but it has not yet been independently validated as a standardized assessment.
Tools, templates, and references
Pass the knowledge check above first.
Completion unlocks after a score of 2 out of 3. Then confirm that you produced the lesson deliverable.
Go to the knowledge check