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1kmbdh2
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ms8wglz
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Earning growth is around 15% (forecast in earning q1 2025) not 20% as you said. Inflation 10%, currency risk, political risk, laundry risk..), so is it really cheap?
| 5 |
Realistic_Record9527
| 1,747,218,847 |
Kaspi Investment Case Write Up
|
**Basic stuff**
Okay so Kaspi is a superapp from Kazakhstan, which provides Banking, Payment an E-commerce Market place and many other services. The basics are the following:
Market cap: 9 Trillion Tenge(currency in Kazakhstan)(17Billion USD)
Earnings in FY 24: 1.1 Trillion Tenge
P/e: 8
Earnings growth is around 20%(Inflaion in Kazakhstan is about 8-10%)
Balance sheet is really solid with the only big liabilities part being customer accounts, which is just the usual stuff in a banking business.
So if you have some Investment knowledge you are probably thinking why the fuck is that business so cheap and with that you are of course right. So before I am gonna describe the different parts of the business in detail, I am gonna talk about the reason why the company is traiding at such a cheap valuation. I have chosen this approach, because I think that with these valuations you probably don't even have to hear much about the business, for the company to be a sure buy. This is why I think that you have to hear first about the problematic parts of the company, which saves you some time, because this will be the deciding factor of wheter to invest or not, because the business is really fucking good.
First of all the Company is listed on the Nasdaq, but everything for the company goes on in Kazakhstan. In general Kazakhstan has a rather problematic reputation, with being a very important trade partner to russia(they are both really big countries that share a really long border with each other) and they have just in general a rather close relationship with them. Also the country and that enviroment in general has just much prejudice with corruption, which is sometimes valid and sometimes not. The political situation is also bascially like in russia a kind of stateged democracy. Then most investors are of course not able to have a good grasp of what the companies products really are and how important they are for the users, which is the usual reason why people rather invest into something they know or they are familiar with(home bias).
So these are the usual reasons why companies like these tend to trade at lower valuations, because this enviroment just comes with a certain risk, which should of course be reflected in the valuation.
Then the next important piece was the problematic information that is solely related to the company, which is basically really good summarized by the short report of culper on september 19, 2024 [https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/cc91fda7-4669-4d1b-81ce-a0b8d77f25ab/downloads/4147ea18-c5e3-4426-8c1f-a74f1c521777/Culper\_KSPI\_9-19-24.pdf?ver=1743770141000](https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/cc91fda7-4669-4d1b-81ce-a0b8d77f25ab/downloads/4147ea18-c5e3-4426-8c1f-a74f1c521777/Culper_KSPI_9-19-24.pdf?ver=1743770141000) . You can read it in detail for yourself, but I am gonna talk about the most important aspects here. Kaspis response to the press release can be found here [https://ir.kaspi.kz/media/Kaspi.kz\_Responds\_to\_Investor\_Questions.pdf](https://ir.kaspi.kz/media/Kaspi.kz_Responds_to_Investor_Questions.pdf)
**Business related Allegations**
First of all there were many allegations, but the main business related ones are that Kaspi said in a press release that: “Our business does not have any exposure to Russia or Russian businesses.” and Culper says that is wrong. Culper also thinks that Kaspi can face secondary sanctions(secondary sanctions: when using the primary sanctions for russia as an example, these are basically just sanctions for companies or countries that still conduct siginificant transcations with russia even thouigh the US expects them not to). So the result of the secondary sanctions can be exclusion from the U.S. financial system or other monetary penalties, nasdaq delisting and reputational damage for the company, so pretty serious stuff. Furthermore Culper thinks that Kaspi has been growing really rapidly especially in the last years mostly because of credit card tourists, that came from russia and wanted to have a credit card in Kazakhstan. They expected about 29% of the deposits of Kaspi to be from non-Kazakhs, so mostly russians.
So in terms of Kaspi responding to these statements, they put out a statement, where they dement most of the claims. For example with the credit tourist point, they clarify, that the numbers, that culper calculated with are way to high and their own numbers are that rather 2.8% of their deposits are from non-residents(the definition is that: Only people without a permanent residence permit. so also no weird definiton) so here I would just trust there numbers because they growth also in the last years was in line with previous growth from deposits and therefore it seems like this didn't have a really big impact on their growth rates.
The allegation with the statement in their press release(“Our business does not have any exposure to Russia or Russian businesses.”) that is a really valid point, because culper rightly pointed out that they have much involvment with russian companies in their daily business(this won't result in secondary sanctions, because it is not a significant financial transaction--> the secondary sanctions mostly aim at excluding russia from the financial markets). So there is also a class action law suit against them, because of that reason, however they only phrased it slightly wrong, because they actually make no revenue in russia, which is what they wanted to say or at least what they can use as a defense but I would have also interpretet it differently. So here they are problably gonna face a small fine or something like that, but that won't be a big deal either way if they win or loose.
The next allegation was the one with the secondary sanctions. Here Culper says that they can face secondary sanctions or problems with money laundering law, because they have a bank account with Raiffeisen bank in moscow. So here one has to very precise, because serious problems arise if you work with a sanctioned bank. Raiffeisen Bank russia isn't a sanctioned bank, however they where being investigated because there was suscpisoun regarding money laundery. However they only had to pay fines because their money laundering controls wheren't strict enough. So just dealing with the Raiffeisen bank russia has no consequences because they aren't sanctioned yet and if they become santioned, Kaspi can just stop dealing with them. So no problem here, as far as my research goes.
Then there where some other allegations about company divisions that seem suscpisious, but Culper didn't have anything close to actual proof and Kaspi defends these allegations also really solid in their response so here I expect also very likely no problems to come from.
**Personal Allegations**
So the personal Allegations are related to managment who worked for Kaspi or who where major shareholders.
Kairat Satybaldy was a major shareholder of Kaspi(about 30%) and he commited money launderign fraud in 2014 and was imprisoned for that. He used one of the Kaspi apps bank accounts to facilitate the money laundering fraud, so he used the product to do that. Important to note is that he didn't use company accounts to commit the fraud and that Kaspi was here just a tool, as many other banking options are for ciminal usage. So Kaspi had no problems through that however that is still a major warnings sign, especially because the current chairman of the board(Kim), who is also going to play part in the other personal allegation, called him a long term friend. However this whole afair was more than ten years ago and I think that is just the general enviroment with Kazakhstan, that with many of the wealthy or powerful individuals that are involved in companies and so on there is often corruption in play so that this is here also the case isn't really a suprise. So I think that in a country like Kazakhstan you are always gonna deal with some kind of corrupt businessman, so yeah I would still like to empahsize that it didn't have anything to do with the company and was only related to himself.
So the next part is actually really crazy, so the short story is that the chairman Kim and Andrey Derkunskiy had a legal dispute over Kim suing him for extortion. Here Andrey was ruled guilty and had to go to prision for that. However he kept saying that he was being played here and that Kim seized a 30% share of Kaspi for him, that actually Satybaldy owns(It would take really long to describe so you can read the long version in the short report). Then he got to jail and apparently commited suicide although there was a cellmate that later said that two other inmates killed him and the prision administration also helped. However that guy later recanted his statement. Later actually Satybaldys share actually grew to 30% percent, however this isn't a big problem, because even though Andrey found that out, there is actually nothing really wrong with Kim holding shares for Satybaldy and after 30% you have to make a tender offer for additional shares at the market price, so it is usual for investors to keep their share at 30%. So yeah of course it sounds fucking crazy but the police has thoroughly investigated the case for sure and even if there was actually something corrupt going on or if they actually killed him, if there was nothing new about the case in the last years, it isn't likely that something is gonna turn out right now or in the next couple of years.
**Conclusion of Allegations**
So to summarize all the mentioned allegations. The business related allegations all seemed to be just efforts to try to make the company as a whole seem really shady with much corruption going and and everything, but apart from their one press statement which is in my opinion also very easily missinterpreted, all the shady activity that Culper talks about is mostly just related to their enviroment, so beeing close to russia and so on, but not related to the company.
When talking about the personal allegations I would argue that like I said before you very quickly deal with people that are involved with criminal activities, however what has to be noticed is, that the company never played part in these activities and especially in the last 10 years nothing shady happend here, so it is very unlikely that they either face any consequences of the past or that the managment like Kim will involve the business in criminal dealings or do something criminal themself. Another important reason for that is that Kim and the Ceo currently own over 20% of the company, which is over 3.4 Billion USD, so I think they nearly have no incentive to danger their stake in the company in any way. When they own that much of the company that also means that they have a high trust into nothing from the past fucking them up, so I think that is another positive point.
So to conclude it, I think that any criminal acts from the past are gonna have any impact on the company in the future is rather unlikely, due to how long ago these things happend and I think that the current managment has clear visibility over what is going on in their company(due to them being most of the times on both sides of an transaction--> what I will talk about alter in the business segment) and thus they are not gonna do anything or won't allow the company to do anything that will endanger their personal net worth.
Thats why I think all the mentioned points pose a small risk, that I am fine to take, because I am really crazy compensated for it, by their great fucking business model. And having a short report written also has many positive points, because of the things they didn't find at the company, even though they were really looking deep into it. So they didn't find any company data or any employee who actually confirmed the things they said, which is the usual approach to give your allegations more validity.
**Business**
Now here are the basics about the business:
Kazakhstan has a population of around 21 Million people.
Kaspi, which practically only operates in Kazakhstan has 15 million MAU's(Montly active users) and 10 Million DAU's(Daily active users) on average. If you think about how many people of these 21 million are too old or too young to have the app, then you see that Kaspi bacially owns the whole of Kazakhstan. And that they have such a high ratio of DAU's to MAU's, which also shows how important the app is for everybody's life in Kazakhstan. The DAU's are also growing faster than the MAU's which also means that people also keep using the app more and more right now. Of course these high numbers also suggest that in Kazakhstan in terms of users there isn't that much room for growth, however I would assume that we can still see around 5 % DAU growth in the next years. Right now we have 11% DAU growth and 6% MAU growth.
**Payment**
Now when we talk about their actual product first, they have their Banking and payment functions as the kind of main function of Kaspi, so thats the way they acquire users for the app and thats their most important product right now.
In Payment they are leading in Total Payment Volume, here the Halyk Bank(Kazakhstans biggest legacy bank is the closest with around 16 Trillion Tenge in TPV per year, wheras Kaspi has an TPV of around 37 Trillion Tenge in FY24. However even though Kaspi has a higher Total Payment volume, they destroy them in number of transactions, where Kaspi has 6 Billion Transactions per year and Halyk Bank has only 360 million. So this perfectly shows that Kaspi is mostly used for the small quick transactions and Halyk Bank is used for big transactions, like getting salary and so on. This in turn also leads Kaspi to be used by people much more often, than for example the Halyk Banks Super App attempt, which even though it has 10 Million MAU's, it has only 2.2 million DAU's, so less people use their app in general, but also people use their app just much less on a daily basis.
This for me also the major difference, why Kaspis super app actually works and Halyk's Super App won't work that good, because the daily usage and the habit forming is just essentiall to then upsell the customers to the other services and so on. But that is just a side note.
So Kaspi is leading here by a big margin because as mentioned in many posts on reddit in the Kazakhstan subreddit or elsewhere on the internet, they have the most convinient user experience and they have one other huge advantage. So for many payment businesses there has been the goal of trying to be at both sides of an transaction, because if you achieve that, then you can actually eliminate all the costs that go to paying the payment networks or the merchant bank and so on.
When you have a country like Kazakhstan with people only paying with Kaspi and also paying to other Kaspi accounts, Kaspi can be on both sides of the business and can therefore either have the same transaction costs as in the western countries and take all the profits, or what is the much more sustainabil solution, is that you just provide payment for cheaper payment fees and that changes the game completly.
Because then when someone pays at a shop, the shop would get a higher share of the revenue, if the person pay's with Kaspi to their Kaspi account, so they are incentivized to have people pay with Kaspi and therefore sometimes either only accept Kaspi or try to hide that they have another payment option. So thats why you see the Kaspi QR codes just everywhere in Kazakhstan. This creates really strong network effects for the business, because if you want to just pay anywhere, you gotta have Kaspi to pay.
Thats in general the phantasie that so many payment provider, like Block in US have, but in Kazakhstan it is actually possible due to the small population size and other effects that make it possible.
So that is the main point, why people have and use the Kaspi App and than Kaspi upsells them to their other services(94% of their MAU's use the QR code and card transcation function)
The Business made in FY 2024:
Revenue(mainly through payment fees) 587 Billion Tenge
Net income 382 Billion Tenge
Net income growth: 15-20%
**Fintech**
So the next businesses are going to be described a bit faster, because the main point really is the payment business and then its just about upselling the customer.
So the fintech business is just the usual banking business, so people can deposit money with Kaspi and Kaspi lends it to other customers, that want a loan or to businesses. Here they also have crazy good possbilities to give credits to their customers, because they have all the information about the customer, because all of the customers life is just happening on Kaspi, so what he pays for and so on. That means they have excellent data to make solid credit decisions. The same with loans to businesses also.
That business is used by about 40% of the MAU's(so buy now pay later 40% and deposits 40%) and it made in FY 24:
Revenue: 1.3 trillion Tenge
Net income: 327 Billion Tenge
Net income growth: 15%
**Marketplace**
I would say in terms of growth and profit potential, this is Kaspi's best business.
First of all the marketplace is split into e-commerce and m-commerce. M-commerce is just a way for people to pay with Kaspi when they visit a physical store, so thats stuff like the QR codes or other help with digitizing their store. So here Kaspi gets fees as payment and thats it. The business is growing decently with around 15% but is mostly important to onboard people on Kaspi's e-commerce plattform, where Kaspi can then have more merchants and create also here crazy networkeffects and just make their marketplace offer much more attractive.
So the E-commerce Business is just basicaly like amazon, so third party sellers on the plattform that offer stuff there and Kaspi takes a take rate on every transcaction. They also just play the usual marketplace game by offering logistics service and advertising to further monetize the marketplace.
They also have in e-commerce an e-groceries service, which is really impressive, because there they offer just the typical western service of ordering groceries online and then they bring them to your house. However even though the business model doesn't seem to work that well in western countries and is unprofitable as fuck, they got to 6-7% net income margin in just 12 months and the business is growing like crazy, with around 64% in GMV growth right now.
Then they also have a travel platform, where they offer travel services, like flights, trains and so on to the customers. This business grows with 22% GMV.
Overall e-commerce grows with around 60% in FY24(Q1 2025 was a special effect), so this is where the future of the segment is. In general the Kaspi marketplace has nearly no serious competition in Kazakhstan, because they just have so much more inventory than the other alternatives, which means they are just gonna keep outgrowing the competition here massively.
Revenue: 733 Billion tenge
Net income: 348 Billion tenge
Growth: 25-30% over the next years.
**Expansion**
The company right now expands to Turkey, Azerbaijan and Ukraine through acquisitions, however Ukraine and Azerbaijan really only represent an extremely small part of their business, less than 0.5% of revenues together. In Turkey they made bigger acquisitions, with Hepsiburada, a Turkish market place and the Rabobank. So they basically try to replicate their success in Turkey with using transferring their technology and services and so on. This can maybe work, however I am not gonna expect much from these efforts, just for the sake of conservatism. And even though Hepsiburada makes a small loss right now, it is only about 6B Tenge in Q1 25 vs Net income of 260B Tenge from the Kazakhstan business. So it wont have a really big impact on the company even it goes downhill from now, because I think they will have much harder time replicating their business model in a bigger country, with much more competitive players.
**Dividends**
So this is basically a really important point, because the company has a really solid balance sheet with nearly no debt, they are returning most of their cashflows directly back to shareholders. The company paid in the last year around 850 Tenge per quarter which is around 7% dividend with a stockprice of 48000 tenge. They paused the dividends to fund the turkey acquistions with two quarters of cashflows and then they said they will go back to buying back stock or paying dividends.
So lets say theoretically they use all of their cashflows, which should be excluding one time effects about the same level as their net income, to give back to shareholders than they would pay 1.1 Trillion Tenge back to their shareholders, with 200 million outstanding shares, this would result in 5500 Tenge per share, with a share price of 48000 Tenge, you get 11.4% dividends. And the company is still growing really much.
**Valuation**
And the good part is if they just pay their cashflows out to you, it doesn't matter if they did some crime in the past or if the shares price doesn't rise because in the end the share price should just represent the intrinsic value of the company. And if this doesn't happen, then you can just buy the shares at cheaper prices and just wait till the intrinsic value comes in the form of cashflows out of the company. The problem of investors not appreciating the value of the company is only a problem if you want to sell the shares previous to the company paying out all their cashflows, which is always an option if the share price isn't attractive enough to sell.
In terms of valuation I would just use basic multiples, because I think the most important part to answer the question whether you buy the company or not is the allegations and legal problems part. That is because its is extremely obvious that if you exclude these potential risks, the company is with 8 times net income a sure buy. So this decision is crucial to whether you invest or not. If you buy my arguments then do it, if not then not. Of course for the size of the position I think it should be max. 10% of your portfolio, due to the still rather risky nature of the investment. Here the usual approach should be taken that even though it may have a high expected return, the return is due to the nature of the investment rather volatile and the higher the share of your portfolio, the loss volatile of a company you want.
The company owns right now around 1.1 Trillion Tenge and I would value the company with around 30x earnings(so should be valued about 3.5x higher), because the business is still growing really solid and they can just roll out new products and monetize their user even more. Also their business has so many strong network effects that I expect the Business to continue to exists for a really long time, because when people use the app that often it really takes an incredibly long time to stop using it especially when you also fight network effects. And it will be even more difficult when they use more than one Kaspi service, because there have to be better alternatives for both to stop using the App. The only problems are the rather risky nature of the country and potential problems that could still result from the past affairs.
Another way to show how attractive the company is valued in my opinion is to make use of the typical asymetric relationship of gains on losses when you buy a company. Here we can assume two szenarios, either the company has many legal problems or just any political intervention and they get into serious problems, which results in the company being worth 0 and the other szenario being they won't have any of these problems and their business just keeps on growing and becoming more profitable. So I would assume the first szenario has a probability of happening of maximum around 20% and an expected return of 0, the other szenario then gets 80% and an expected return of min.40 times earnings without the legal risk. So we get 0\*0.20+0.80\*44 Billion Tenge= 35.2 trillion tenge expected value. This just takes advantage of the nature of stocks that your maximum loss, if you go long, is 100% and your maximum return is infinite %.
**Conclusion**
So this is my take on the company, thanks to everybody who read till here, I think I have surely done some spelling mistakes and very likely also stated some facts wrong, however I hope it is still possible to follow my ideas. I would be happy of you guys could share your thoughts on everything I wrote and give your own view of the company. I haven't invested yet, however this would represent my case for investing. Feel free to convince me otherwise.
| 10 |
Stockboymoon
| 1,747,216,928 |
amazon
|
ValueInvesting
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/ValueInvesting/comments/1kmbdh2/kaspi_investment_case_write_up/
|
1k6yl7m
|
mott1c9
|
Yeah man reaching in my pocket is so inconvenient. What a nightmare
| 5 |
FunkyChedda
| 1,745,517,102 |
Is America stuck in the ‘90s?
|
So I stumbled across this petition on [change.org](https://www.change.org/p/bring-biometric-payment-systems-to-the-u-s?recruiter=1371651880&recruited_by_id=392bbf40-1c38-11f0-bb30-6755fc48265e&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&utm_medium=copylink) — the guy’s suggesting the U.S. finally adopt biometric payments. You know, enough with cards and PINs, it’s time to start paying with your face. And I’m like: finally, someone’s saying it out loud.
There’s even a video attached — it shows this American girl in Russia buying coffee... with her face. She just smiles, and boom — done. They don’t even have Apple Pay over there anymore, but they worked around it and built their own thing. Meanwhile here? We’re still waiting in lines, dealing with glitchy terminals, digging for cards, punching in PINs like it’s 2004.
What really gets me — we’ve got all the fintech powerhouses right here: Amazon, Google, Meta. Remember Amazon Go? Paying with your palm? All that stuff just kinda fizzled out. Why? Because no one really explained why we need it. Everything launched half-baked and half-hearted. Meanwhile in Russia, one bank rolled it out — and it just works. Not because they’re geniuses, but because they actually made it for people.
And us? Still stuck with plastic, cash, and even checks. In a country that calls itself a tech leader. Every time I’m standing in line at the checkout, I can’t help but think: seriously, why are we still living in the Stone Age? It’s just sad.
| 24 |
SuspectOk421
| 1,745,516,978 |
amazon
|
economy
|
https://www.change.org/p/bring-biometric-payment-systems-to-the-u-s?recruiter=1371651880&recruited_by_id=392bbf40-1c38-11f0-bb30-6755fc48265e&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&utm_medium=copylink
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kdpgzl
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gfy4qql
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If you accept phone calls without knowing who called is that okay? No information is given and you just hung up about 5 seconds later?
| 5 |
elkreply
| 1,608,058,020 |
FRAUD Alert (’Tis the Season)
|
I can tell you from firsthand experience that the current information available online regarding fraud and ID theft has not caught up with the tactics used by thieves. I am posting this now because the most recent scourge of fraud I experienced was related to the holidays…
​
**7 Hot Fraud Trends**
1. Committing ACH fraud (doesn't require hacking anything, super easy to do and closing your account won't automatically stop the fraud)
2. Hacking medical facilities such as doctor offices, dentist offices and urgent care clinics
3. Hacking moving companies, mortgage loan providers and utility providers
4. Armed with the information from #2 and #3 (sometimes using much less information), thieves can then take over your credit agency account
5. Taking over your two-step verification and/or account recovery information (because you haven't set it up yet)
6. Subscription services and purchases with common companies like Apple, Amazon and Verizon
7. Committing fraud during the holidays and/or when you are moving and/or looking to buy a new house. This is when you are most vulnerable. Bless your soul if you happen to be doing all 3 at the same time.
​
**Holiday Season Fraud**
I won’t cover all seven fraud trends in this one article, but ‘tis the season, so I will cover holiday season fraud. The holiday season is one of the most likely times you will experience some form of account fraud or ID theft. They know people are busier than usual and have less time to check email, bank and credit card transactions. Spending time with relatives? Perfect! Travel, not having your password list with you, a forgotten laptop and family obligations help create huge windows of time for thieves to charge and charge and charge, uncontested. Thieves literally WAIT for this time of year. That email notification about a password change on your account might go unnoticed for a week or more. Over the holidays, people often buy presents from stores where they do not traditionally shop. Odd things come up on your account this time of year. By the time you realize that $350 charge was actually NOT something your spouse bought you for Christmas, it might be too late to have the costs refunded.
​
**Fraud Targets: Mortgages and Moving**
Already a 6+ year ID fraud victim, I worsened my situation greatly late last fall (2019). My wife and I were getting ready to move to another state. Once we got our feet on the ground, we planned to buy a new house. I wanted to pre-qualify for the mortgage. My wife, who is a real estate agent, put us in touch with one of her favorite loan officers who works for a medium to small size mortgage company (not one of the big names). Expecting the usual financial colonoscopy, I was given a bunch of forms to fill out with the instruction that a secure online portal would be created for us to upload the documents in a few days. Being impatient and overloaded with work, I provided more information than I thought they could possibly ever need and emailed a PDF of the completed documents directly to my wife’s friend, days in advance of the online portal being ready. I had a move to orchestrate among other things and didn’t want to deal with the 78-step loan prequalification process. Besides, the chances of it being intercepted and used for fraud we are incredibly low, right? It’s a direct email to someone my wife knows at a smaller company. Just in case, I deleted the email out of my sent folder and shredded the original documents. Well, you can guess what happened.
Understand this: credit reports and information pulled for mortgage applications are incredibly dangerous should someone intercept this type of information. They have years of history and will allow thieves to answer any identity challenge questions posed by credit agencies. Able to answer those questions, thieves can take over your entire credit history, indeed your very identity. To put it mildly, mortgage loan providers are a key target.
When you are moving, busy packing and living in a box maze for weeks unable to find your laptop and password info, thieves know this is the perfect time to strike. There are all kinds of charges hitting your account from vendors you don’t immediately recognize because you are moving. You expect high credit card bills the month you move anyway. Plus you have to leave your credit file unfrozen to get your utilities hooked up. As new addresses hit your credit file from all the fraudulent credit applications, the credit agencies don’t know which address is the correct one. Your real address is new too.
​
**What You Can Do About It**
Some of this I’m betting you’ve heard before. Some of it will probably be new information you will perceive to be “over the top” and 5 years ago, maybe it was. Read the full details about what is going on in my next few articles and I hope you change your mind. Over this holiday season:
​
1. Know your passwords well enough to check your account activity frequently on your phone, especially the days directly before and after a holiday. NOTE: u/voteandrewchang2024 suggests a digital password manager. I don’t have a ton of experience with these but it sounds like a pretty good idea!
2. If your phone has access to financial accounts, it should have a good password or PIN.
3. Set up 2-step verification for all your financial accounts and cards, now, before thieves do it for you.
4. Change the password to your primary email account (the one you use to reset forgotten financial passwords) and make it something difficult.
5. Do not save the passwords to your email in your browser. Ever.
6. Under security settings for your primary email account(s), utilize whatever backup email, secondary contact numbers, and “account rescue” information you are able (before thieves do it for you).
7. Do not write checks to pay anyone, (this is one way to setup ACH fraud) with one possible exception…
8. Fraudulent wiring instructions for down payments on a new house are becoming so common, maybe consider a certified bank check you personally drive to the closing attorney’s office (instead of an online transfer)? That may be the only check writing exception I can think of right now.
9. Do not use your ATM debit card to pay for anything, even if you need cash back.
10. Do not provide your social security number to urgent care, a doctor or a dentist office (yes, they will still see you).
11. If your credit is frozen due to previous fraud, do not unfreeze your credit during the holidays to apply for a new credit card or a mortgage.
12. If you are hiring a new accountant or applying for a mortgage during the holidays (bless your soul), make sure you ONLY use the secure pass-coded website portal to send financial information. Do not use email or fax for this.
13. Do not accept or return phone calls from the IRS. The IRS contacts people via United States Postal Service, in writing, not via phone, no matter how urgent. A letter from the IRS may contain a phone number for you to call them and wait on hold until your butt grows roots.
14. Do not accept or return phone calls from Microsoft, Apple, an anti-virus software provider or any other software company saying they have noticed suspicious activity on your computer (especially if they say it is urgent or your account is about to be suspended).
15. Do not click on links in an email, even from friends, unless it’s a confirmation email you were specifically waiting on at that very moment. Type the website name directly into your browser.
16. If you see unexplained charges for $1 or $2 that you did not initiate (even if they are refunded), your accounts have been compromised. Call your financial institution immediately.
17. ID theft insurance!!! Thanks to u/simplequietwork for bringing up my obvious omission.
I am certainly not a professional writer, but if you want to know more about how thieves are able to do these things and how you can protect yourself, I have posted more articles here: [https://www.swanfactor.com/articles/](https://www.swanfactor.com/articles/)
If you are interested in stopping ID theft and fraud, please forward this to as many people as you can. Thanks and good luck!
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SWANfactor
| 1,608,051,544 |
amazon
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FinancialPlanning
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https://www.reddit.com/r/FinancialPlanning/comments/kdpgzl/fraud_alert_tis_the_season/
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