Are you ready for hurricane season?

Hurricane season starts today. Are you prepared? Wherever you live, scammers follow whatever weather emergencies may strike. So as this hurricane season gets started, check over your family’s emergency plan and restock your supply kit. And then check out the FTC’s Dealing with Weather Emergencies article so you’re prepared to avoid scams in case a hurricane (and scammers) cross your path.

Here are four things to do to prepare for hurricane season while avoiding scams.

1. Sign up for alerts and warnings in your area. Public safety officials use systems to alert you about severe weather and disasters.
2. Check your insurance policy. To avoid surprises, check to make sure your insurance policy is current, and find out what’s covered — and what isn’t.
3. Secure important documents. Use a lockable fireproof box to gather important documents — like Social Security and health insurance cards, and copies of deeds, titles, wills, birth and marriage certificates — so they’re ready to go if you have to leave quickly. Or, use personal cloud storage to upload scanned PDFs of important documents. Make sure access requires a strong password and multifactor authentication.
4. Guard your personal information. Year-round, know that only scammers will say they’re a government official and then demand money or your credit card, bank account, or Social Security number.

Bookmark ftc.gov/WeatherEmergencies so you always know how to avoid a scam during hurricane season, and please share this information with your family and community.