June 14, 2010
When we leave our house, we lock the door. When we park our car, we lock it up and set the alarm. We tell our children to lock their bicycles when they’re in school. We don’t want people to take our possessions. The one thing we tend to be cavalier about is our identity, even though it is at least as valuable as anything we own. Our identity is connected to all of our finances, our medical records and our jobs. The protection and safety of our identity is extremely important, yet 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year at a cost of nearly 53 billion dollars to the U.S. economy.
Identity theft is when someone obtains and uses your personal information (name, Social Security number, credit card number, etc.) without your permission and uses it to commit fraud and other crimes. I.D. thieves are rarely caught and thus almost never arrested or convicted. It is very difficult, time consuming and potentially expensive for the victim to repair the damage caused by I.D. theft.
As difficult as I.D. theft is to catch or correct, it is very easy to commit. I.D. thieves use many tactics, including: digging through trash bins for documents containing sensitive information; stealing your credit card number with data storage devices while skimming your credit card at a store; “phishing” - attempting to acquire your personal information by posing as a legitimate entity via electronic communications; by stealing your mail, your purse or wallet and even your personnel file from your employer; and by “pretexting” - getting your sensitive information from you by pretending to be someone from a legitimate office, then using that information to obtain your account information from your financial institutions. Pretexting usually requires some forethought and research on the victim, such as obtaining a birth date or mother’s maiden name before calling.
Security breaches allow I.D. thieves to steal thousands of identities at a time. A security breach occurs when a hacker or employee steals personal information (social security numbers, dates of birth, medical information, credit/debit card numbers, etc.) from an information storage system either in electronic or paper format. Some recent high profile cases include two major insurance companies where upwards of 900,000 policy holders’ personal information was compromised.
Even children are at risk for identity theft, usually by a parent, but increasingly by strangers who target children because of the lengthy time between the theft and the discovery of the crime. Often the theft isn’t discovered until the child becomes an adult and attempts to get a college loan or a credit card. Years have passed, and it is very difficult if not impossible to correct the problem, so prevention of child I.D. theft is becoming increasingly more important. InstantAmber recommends occasionally running your child’s credit report. If they find no record, that is good news.
There are four things you must do if your identity is stolen:
Place a Fraud Alert on your credit report by calling one of the three credit reporting agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian). You need only notify one; they must notify all the others for you. Request and carefully review your credit report for fraud.
Close all the accounts you believe are compromised or opened fraudulently. Make sure you follow up with the companies in writing by certified mail return receipt requested and file an ID Theft Affidavit on any unauthorized charges or accounts you detect.
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. This will help the FTC in locating I.D. thieves and developing I.D. theft prevention tactics.
File a police report with your local police or the police in the community in which the theft took place. Give them a copy of your ID Theft Affidavit and any other supporting documentation you have.
There are several ways you can protect yourself from I.D. theft. First and most importantly is to vigilantly protect your personal information. Your social security number is a key element in stealing your identity. Do not give it up lightly. You are not required to give your social security number to most businesses, including private insurance companies. (There are exceptions: if it is required by federal law or if your insurance company is filing a Medicaid or Medicare claim for you.) Shred sensitive documents. Don’t view private documents in public places on wireless networks. Be careful with your wallet or purse.
Secondly, monitor your financial information regularly. Examine your credit card statement for unauthorized charges. Run a credit report each year and carefully review it for fraud. Save your receipts in a safe place in case you need them to dispute fraudulent activity. Proactively ensure the safety of your identity!
If your identity is stolen, act quickly to stop potential fraud. Time is of the essence when you need to mitigate damage done by identity thieves. The Identity Theft Resource Center will assist you free of charge if you are having difficulty.
Just as we protect our children and our possessions, we need to protect our identities. InstantAmber recommends vigilantly protecting your sensitive information, monitoring your financial information regularly and acting quickly if you suspect fraud in effort to stop the multi-billion dollar identity theft industry. Take advantage of InstantAmber's relationship with America's leader in ID Theft protection, LifeLock, by signing up today at www.lifelock.com/
Sources:
Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov)
Identity Theft Resource Center (www.idtheftcenter.org)
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (www.privacyrights.org)
Identity Theft 911 (www.identitytheft991.org)
