Protecting Our Identity

This year an estimated 10 million people will be victims of identity theft in the United States. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America costing consumers and businesses tens of millions of dollars a year. Though there is no way to totally prevent yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft you can lower your risks of becoming a victim by taking the right precautions and understanding how identity theft occurs.

How Thieves Take Your Identity

-Snatch your wallet or purse.

-Steal your mail.

-Thieves may go through your trash looking for bank and credit card statements or anything containing your personal information.

-Thieves may steal your information from organizations such as merchants, banks, utility companies or even government agencies. They might do this by hacking into their systems or simply breaking into the business and stealing it.

-Thieves will send you fraudulent emails known as “phishing”. These emails look as if they are from financial institutions or businesses and try to con you into providing personal or account information. They may claim that there is a problem with your account and that you need verify your information in order to fix it. Do NOT provide any information to them as these emails are phony.

-Thieves may put viruses or other programs onto your computer that can log your keystrokes thus having the ability to obtain your passwords.

How to Protect Your Identity

-Check your credit reports at least once a year.

-Shred unwanted documents that contain personal information in a cross cut shredder.

-Close any unused credit card or bank accounts.

-Remove your name from mailing lists for pre-approved credit lines and telemarketers.

-Keep your PIN number and any other passwords confidential.

-Contact your financial institution or service provider if you notice odd charges or if expected bills don’t arrive.

-Update your computer virus software, use a spyware removal program, and install a firewall program.

-Consider getting a credit monitoring service. This service will alert you when an entry is made on your credit file.

-DON’T give out personal information via the mail, phone, or Internet unless YOU initiated contact.

-DON’T carry your Social Security Number or any PIN numbers or passwords in your purse or wallet.

These are just a few things that can help prevent you from becoming a victim of identity theft. However if you do become a victim of identity theft be sure to file a police report and contact the three credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your file. In addition contact your financial institution and creditors and let them know you have been victimized.



By: John Ross

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Most of us rely on our personal computers and those in our office to complete multiple tasks each day. If that data is lost or compromised it can create numerous problems for us. Protecting computers against viruses and spyware is something you should do before you start using any program on it. The information you prevent from being accessed could be your credit card accounts and bank accounts. If they are compromised you can end up becoming a victim of identity theft.

One way that people accidentally end up with viruses or spyware on their computer is by not paying attention to the sites they use. Don’t get into the habit of giving out your personal information online just because a site asks for it. To opt in, you should only have to give them a first name and an email address.

Always check the address in the URL to make sure you are accessing a secure site. It should start with “https” as this will let you know it is very secure. If it only starts with “http” then the site is not secure and you can end up compromising the security of your computer if you continue entering information on the site.

Viruses can spread very rapidly so if you think your computer may be infected, you should take care not to pass it to any other area of your computer or to others via email. By disconnecting your computer from the network you have a good chance of isolating the damages.

Always be on the alert for various types of emails known as phishing. This is a scam to get you to provide personal information. Once you do, spyware can be attached to your computer. Never respond to emails asking you for personal information as most credible companies won’t contact you for such information.

Make sure you purchase a virus and spyware protection program that is very easy to install. Most of them offer step by step instructions for you to follow. You can find out how easy such software programs are to install before you buy them just by reading some independent reviews online.

You need to choose the program for your computer protection very carefully. While they are designed to give you the very best security, you can be sure those trying to pass viruses or get spyware into your system are very smart. They have learned elaborate tricks to be able to gain access to your information.

One of the latest tactics that these criminals have been using is to sell software that is supposed to protect your computer from viruses and spyware. Unfortunately, what they are selling you is actually the very thing you are trying to protect yourself against. Always get such software from a company that has an excellent reputation, not just any one that you come across online for a good price.

In order to ensure your computer is well protected against viruses and spyware, you want a program that offers you instant updates. These will usually happen for one full year after you install the program. This ensures that your protective software is always the most current available and criminals will have a hard time infecting your computer system with viruses or spyware.



By: Gabriel Adams

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Identity thieves are becoming more sophisticated with every passing day. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Identity theft can happen anywhere to anyone. In line at the store, online at home or when you’re buying your morning coffee. Identity theft is one of the most common problems that people face today. Any of your personal information can be used to commit the crime.

Identity theft-protection company Lifelock is in the news this morning. The company, headed by CEO Todd Davis, is known for its challenge ad (reproduced below) which has been running for a couple of years. Identity theft can happen anytime, anywhere, to anyone. Identity fraud has become a huge concern in today’s new age and even though precautions have been taken to correct the situation there has not been much success. In the US approximately 120 million citizens had their private records exposed in the last three years causing approximately 27 million Americans to become identity theft victims.

Identity theft in the most extreme cases allows people to get insurance in your name, open false bank accounts and even can provide a cover when arrested for other crimes. Ident-A-Kid’s Immediate Response Card systems utilize an extremely fast digital data acquisition system. A complete profile of each child, including fingerprint, photograph, height and weight, is acquired in less than 15 seconds. Identity theft is the most rapidly growing crime in the world. It’s now bringing in more money than drug trafficking.

Credit

Credit card fraud is the most common form of ‘identity theft.’ It threatens no liability and only a little bit of inconvenience to most consumers in the United States - consumers that are prudent, anyway. And I’ve never understood what these services would or could do to prevent or mitigate a true impersonation fraud. Credit card companies still sent actual credit cards in their pre-approval mailings and one was stolen out of my mailbox. A year later, I received a collection notice that over $2000 was charged at a retailer blocks away from my home. Credit card fraud is often confused for identity theft because of those clever commercials with the funny voice-overs but it’s really a walk in the park compared to identity theft. It won’t take just a few phone calls to clear it up either.

Credit monitoring is an afterthought. What credit monitoring is, is selling you your own data.

Credit Fraud

In the long run, credit fraud consistently hurts all of us. No one is totally absorbing these costs by themselves. They continually get passed on to the consumers. There are several fraud alert mechanisms that ensure that creditors notify you and verify your identity before any new line of credit is opened in your name. One of today’s most common mechanisms is the new and famous LifeLock.

LifeLock

You can protect your credit (and your family’s credit) with some outstanding features provided by LifeLock. At the time of this writing, there are even several websites offering LifeLock coupons. You can simply run a simple search engine query on “LifeLock coupons” and you’re sure to come across several sites to review and choose from. LifeLock is indeed a big name in identity theft prevention today. Some say it is a bit overkill, some say it’s exactly what they needed. Review the information carefully and you decide.

 



By: Pj Germain

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According to some surveys, there are nearly a thousand victims of identity theft every hour. This large number is mainly due to the extensive use of online banking. As a result, you should really be careful if you are a person who constantly uses financial services on the internet.

Of course some banks may have fraud protection and you may not be liable if someone use your bank account to purchase. However, it will still require you some time to resolve the problem. You may need to apply for new credit cards and change all the information associated with the bank accounts. It will not be worth spending the time to do that if there are ways to protect yourself from identity theft.

In order to stay away from identity theft, you should take some measures. The first thing is to be careful of scams on the internet. For example, you may have received emails asking for your login information of your internet banking account. You should never reply to these emails with your login information.

Nine out of ten times they are only phising scams, this means that they are trying to get your account information by the scam emails. As a matter of fact some banks even warn their customers that they will never ask for the password of the online banking account of a customer!

Since the technology is so advanced these days, the scam emails may not ask you for your login information directly. Instead, they will give you links in the emails and ask you to follow the link to log into your bank account for maintenance or updating information.

You should never follow any link from these emails and enter the login information. It can be just a link to a fraud website and the theft can get your login information once you enter the password and log into your “bank account”. The theft will just withdraw all the money you have in the account within a few hours! It may be already too late when you discovered that it has been a scam.

You have always bear in mind that when you try to log into your online bank accounts, you should try to type the url on the navigation bar instead of clicking links. If you have any doubt about emails that are sent from the bank, you should try to contact the bank in person before you make any decision based on the emails you receive. By doing that you will be able to be saved from identity theft.



By: Jerry Leung

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Identity fraud is a growing problem in the UK with perpetrators using methods ranging from trawling refuse for copies of bank and utility statements, through to electronic theft of details via the internet. The consequences for a victim can be immense with huge debts run up as the fraudster opens bank accounts and credit accounts to obtain money in the victim’s name.

So what can people do about identity fraud? Firstly action can be taken by contacting the large credit referencing agencies such as Equifax or Experian and setting up a password on your personal data. This works by the agency first conducting a thorough review to verify your identity, then for a small fee they add a password to their databases containing your personal data. Once a bank or other financial services organisation enquires to verify an account at your current address (for example that a fraudster is trying to set up), they will find a password that the fraudster will be asked to verify - which of course they will not be able to. The upshot is that no one can set up a bank account or other financial account without knowing your password recorded on the databases - no matter how many copies of bank statements they have gathered from your refuse!

So great, as an individual you can protect your data and prevent someone defrauding you. But what if you are a landlord who is about to let a property to an individual? How do you know they are who they purport to be? Well, in a perfect world everyone will have secured their personal data and it won’t be a problem, but of course this is far from reality. So what is the solution for landlords? Really it is quite simple. There are credit checking agencies that specialise in identity verification, they have access to a wide range of databases that can check a prospective tenant’s history, verifying previous rental property address, assessing financial accounts linked to those addresses, and a range of other data that collectively verifies an individual’s identity. In short, it is always possible to protect and verify someone’s identity, never take risks that you will later regret!



By: Gordon Marsden

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When a child is born, a parent may apply for a Social Security number for that child.  A child’s Social Security number is very much sought after by identity thieves.  The child identity thief could be a family member (uncle, aunt cousin), another adult who has access and is allowed in your home, someone who has stolen your mail or hacked into your computer.  We think we know who the child identity thief could be, but we don’t.

Most parents apply for the baby’s SSN so that they can claim the child on their taxes and you must submit the SSN on the official tax forms, so now, anybody who has the means to see that tax form can copy the child’s information.  The child’s identity could be stolen at the hospital or at a health professionals’ office.  What about the dishonest legal professional who sells the child’s identity to an unscrupulous client.  It does not matter what profession a person is in, they have the potential to be dishonest.

The thief could be anybody.  Typically, your not going to check your child’s credit rating (why would you), so your not going to know their identity has been stolen.  Now the identity thief has more than a decade to create a new identity for him and gain credit cards, loans, cell phones, utilities, bank accounts, drivers license etc. etc.  The crime is not discovered until your child has grown and applies for her first education loan, apartment, credit card or job!  By now, the trail has become ice cold and your child’s credit record has been cut to ribbons.  In all likelihood all of the accounts opened in her name have been purchased by a collection agency.

It would be very difficult for your child to repair what has happened because of the difficulty in tracking down the original loan applications and transaction records if the original account has been through several hands because of companies merging and being bought-up.  Our children need to be taught about the dangers of providing their personal information and your personal information when they are logged onto the net.  Today’s kids have a burning desire to log into the many chat rooms and social networking sites and they may be asked for personal information on a registration screen or by an identity thief.

The preventative identity theft company, LifeLock, has already launched the first-of-its-kind Children’s ID Theft Prevention Program.  Now, LifeLock’s subscribers can add the children’s ID theft program to their existing full suite of ID theft preventative services.  The children’s theft prevention program is for minors 16 years and younger.  A recent study in the state of Utah revealed that 1,800 Social Security numbers assigned to children 12 years of age and younger had been forged, according to the state’s Identity Theft Task Force.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has advised that between 5% and 7% of identity theft victims are under the age of 18 and if you include college-aged individuals, it is almost 20%.

“Due to the extreme increase in ID theft among minors, we have taken the initiative to develop a first-of-its-kind program to protect children,” said Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock.  Tracking credit bureau activity and monitoring depository accounts are considered standard when dealing with identity theft.  But Davis insists that working with the Social Security Administration and identifying work activity from unusually young minors is a red flag that warrants further investigation. “LifeLock is in the process of working with local and federal agencies, as well as leaders in Washington D.C. to lead the efforts in protecting our children from identity theft. This is a critical aspect of our overall service,” continued Davis. “As the Utah investigation demonstrated, sadly, there are numerous victims yet to be discovered.”  LifeLock subscribers can pay $10 per year for the Children’s ID Theft Prevention Program through which LifeLock will regularly audit the credit bureau, monitor depository banking accounts, and track any unusual “work activity” with the Social Security Administration on behalf of LifeLock’s youth customers. All minors enrolled in the program will also benefit by LifeLock’s standard $1 million guarantee.

 

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By: Randy Vezina

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