If there’s something that demands your attention this end of January, it’s Identity Theft Awareness Week, a time packed with events and resources to educate the public about one of the most pervasive threats millions of consumers face.

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During Identity Theft Awareness Week (Jan. 27-31), you can learn how you can protect yourself from becoming a victim. We are partnering with the FTC for 2 webinars on Thursday, Jan. 30, to help you better understand ID theft, avoid it, and, if necessary, recover from it.

Here are five ways you can protect yourself from falling victim to identity theft: Choose strong passwords by using passwords that combine letters, numbers and special characters. Also, always be sure to use a different password for each account.

Fact checked by Vikki Velasquez If you believe someone has used your identity, the first thing you should do is alert your financial institutions so that they can take immediate action to mitigate potential consequences.

Identity Theft Awareness Week started on Monday. It’s scary how we can be just one click away from handing over our personal information to a stranger who managed to fool us. Let’s not let this happen in 2025 by beefing up our online accounts and habits.