Personal Brand Recovery - Learn how to protect yourself from identity theft

September 9, 2007 at 8:27 pm | In Futures, Interview, Networking, Personal Branding, Reputation Management |

After suffering from identity theft on Wednesday, I was forced to either put all my energy into regaining all my loses or quit. One attribute of my brand and a saying that I like to follow is “what doesn’t break me, makes me stronger.” Without a Google account (gmail), a PayPal account and taking a major hit to my bank account, I was left without contact of my network. I used this incident to fuel both my work at EMC and all my Personal Branding work. I, as well as all of you, should be more aware of identity theft because it could happen to you at a moments notice.Daily News Tribune

Instead of blowing up about this issue, I concentrated on the work at hand. I ended up on the cover of The Daily News Tribute, a local Waltham and Newton newspaper (both in Massachusetts). What’s funny is that I’m originally from Newton, went to college in Waltham at Bentley and currently live in Waltham, so it was quite the coincidence. This certainly gave my brand a boost and I pushed forward, as I recovered my network through my picture memory and help from Adam Salamon, who is the Sponsorship Manager for Personal Branding Magazine. I’ve also started work on pulling Issue 2 together of the magazine, for release on November 1st. Expect a lot more content, a few special interviews and a completely new format.

Here are some tips for protecting and recovering your Personal Brand identity:

Protect - Before the incident occurs

  • Database all your contacts as you make them, for networking purposes and to be able to reconnect if you suffer a loss. You can use Microsoft Excel, Access or other programs to accomplish this.
  • Use multiple passwords for all your online assets, including your email account, electronic bank account and website hosting service.

Recover - After the incident occurs

  • Reach out to key members of your network that may have contact information of others in your network.
  • Call and email the companies that handle your assets. Make sure to let them investigate the issue.
  • Try and get your mind off of everything and focus on regenerating your Personal Brand.

7 Comments »

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  1. Great to see your progress on this - and nice media placement!

    Comment by Tiffany Monhollon — September 9, 2007 #

  2. Having your Accounts Hacked Is a Hard Way to Learn about Protecting your Online Identity

    Guest Blogger:  Dan Schwabel talks about the recent hijacking of his Gmail and Paypal accounts.
    When it comes to PR, never has there been a better time to communicate your personal brand to the world. Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace,…

    Trackback by Common Sense PR — September 10, 2007 #

  3. I’m guessing this is one of the most painful things you’ve gone through… violated, humiliated, etc.

    You mention “databasing your contacts.” You can easily do that with ACT!, Goldmine, Salesforce, etc. I recommend a free account on JibberJobber.com (my website) where you can import all of your Outlook contacts, LinkedIn contacts, etc (anything that exports to a csv file!). I’ve used JibberJobber to find contacts from a library or other office when I’m on the road, as it’s kind of become my personal roladex.

    Good luck piecing all your stuff back together Dan!

    Jason Alba
    CEO - JibberJobber.com
    :: self-serve relationship management ::

    Comment by Jason Alba — September 10, 2007 #

  4. Dan,

    Sad to hear you went through this and excited to hear that you made the most of it. It speaks volume for you, personally, and for your brand!

    Great lessons, Dan! May we all learn and grown from this experience (and protect, too!)

    Thanks for the insight, Dan!

    Comment by Maria Elena — September 11, 2007 #

  5. Dan,

    What a great way to leverage your personal brand! Often times people look at bad situations, and they think bad. Good way to find the good in a negative situation. That is testament to your character, thanks for the example.

    Comment by James Seay — September 13, 2007 #

  6. lemons to lemonade, man… coolio!

    Talk about having your googling… yesterday morning I was giving a seminar in front of room of real estate brokers… and the end, one of them came up to me holding her smartphone… “I googled you while you were speaking… and all your credentials popped right up… I guess you know what you’re talking about.”

    There are flaws to her logic, but I took the compliment anyways… I’m glad you were able to control your own name (and passwords) again.

    happy birthday ;)
    ~ Vikram
    totally agree… I’m amazed at how fused our personal & professional lives have begun: Our phone number cross over (with the cell phone) and now our web presence too (with the likes of facebook, and our blogs even).

    you can google facebook accounts already, btw… and soon facebook will allow people to stay anonymous.

    Parents are hip to MySpace, but not yet to Facebook… they should warn their underage kids to stay private.

    But for those of us on our personal brand soapbox, Facebook and our own blogs are great cross-references!

    ~ Vikram
    PersonalBrandMarketing.com

    Comment by vikramrajan — September 15, 2007 #

  7. [...] Personal Brand Recovery - Learn how to protect yourself from identity theft [...]

    Pingback by Startup Signal - Today’s Top Blog Posts on Entrepreneurship - Powered by SocialRank — October 1, 2007 #

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