The outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and the personal and economic effects it is having on individuals is extreme. No one is not facing issues by this major disruption. The three credit bureaus have created pages to assit you in managing your credit during these hard times, see these links; Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The credit bureaus are taking measures to support people impacted by the Coronavirus and are also working with creditors and lenders to minimize the effects on consumers’ credit standing.

People experiencing a financial hardship are wondering how late or reduced payments impact their credit scores. Experts are encouraging individuals with concerns to contact their creditors and discuss options being offered. The Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) is providing guidance to consumers, creditors and lenders on how they can work together to assist anyone affected by the Coronavirus. The CDIA has created a FACT SHEET: Helping Consumers Avoid Credit Problems if Impacted by Coronavirus (COVID-19) which is a very helpful resource of information for getting further help.

This blog post details a very sophisticated phishing scam I got in my email. Below is the email chain I received from the scammer asking about New Homes. I responded to their cryptic 1st email and this email message is their response.

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When I click on one of the secure web https links in the email, I got the web page shown below.

When I click on one of the email login buttons shown on the website, I got the web page shown below.

The image looks exactly what a Google login page would look like, however, if I continued and enter my email address and password, I could be giving the scammer full access to my email account.

One way to prevent this from happening is to make sure you add the 2-Step Verification for your email login access.

Here are the links to get 2-Step Verification for several popular email services.

Office 365 2-Step Verification

Outlook 2-Step Verification

Google 2-Step Verification

Yahoo 2-Step Verification

AOL 2-Step Verification

Facebook 2-Step Verification

I hope the above information can help you avoid having your email address stolen from you!

I wanted to share a helpful tip for locating the properties you have assigned as “Favorites” in the MLS Portal searches.
 
When you access the MLS Portal, there is a row of menu options, to see the Favorite you have previous picked the menu item shown in the image above.
 
Other Link: Assigning Categories in the MLS Portal

I wanted to share a helpful tip when reviewing properties sent to you from the MLS Portal searches. When you get a listing to see via email, click on the property link. After evaluating the listing, you can select the “Heart Icon” located in the upper right of the window, once selected a menu will pop-down and shows you three options. The three options are shown in the image above.
 
You can use the “Save as Favorite” selection to add a red heart icon that signifies that you like the property.
 
You can use the “Save as Possibility” selection to add a yellow heart to signify to sort of like the property and need to research it further.
 
You can also use the “Discard Listing” selection to add a “Trash Can” icon to signify that you do not like the property.
 
The search results in the Portal can be searched by theses categories. You can change a listing’s status by selecting the “Heart Icon and again and making a different selection. When you discard a listing, you will no longer get status updates for it in emails.
 
Other Link: Finding your Favorites in the MLS Portal