Charles White asked:


heard about identity theft and its apparent ugliness. But do we actually have to believe on it? Isn’t this just a bunch of media hype? Certainly not.

Last year alone, 10 million Americans were victims of an identity theft crime costing around $57 billion in total damage. The Web site called identitytheftlabs.com estimates that the average victim of theft crime can expect to see over $6,300 illegally charged in their name. The average expenditure to the individual ranges from $400 to $2,000. However, these values do not capture the stress, time, and bureaucracy involved with recovering your identity.

Accordingly, what’s really scary about this crime of the decade is that you are at a much great risk when a thief gets a hold of your social security number, or bank account numbers, or starts combining information on you from multiple sources. The SSN alone is considered by thieves to be the master key to the kingdom owned by you.

While it’s a fact that there is no fool-proof mechanism to avoid identity theft, everyone still has options. The same Web site identitytheftlabs.com outlines two workable options:

1. Secure yourself from the danger and search for identity insurance elsewhere. This works if you’re the person who plans a schedule and will follow it without missing important deadlines. The dilemma is that all the relevant tasks prevents you from saving money because the insurance will cost as much as the full identity protection plan.

2. Secure a proactive identity protection plan that renews your fraud alerts and incorporates identity insurance and/or guarantees one million dollars.

Indeed, identity protection plan is the best course available for most people because it works for the best protection at the best price.

Who Provides the Best Identity Protection Plan?

There is no simple answer to this question. It depends on your wants and needs and how much value you place on the differences each company has. However, I am lad to note that IdentityTheftLabs.com has investigated and proven three companies (LifeLock, Trusted Id, and the LoudSiren Debix team). Expectedly, the site recommends and vouches on the expertise and capability of these three identity protection companies.

IdentityTheftLabs.com admits that they were recommending Debix before they partnered with LoudSiren and before they signed big contracts to protect the residents of Ohio, Connecticut and the city of Nashville. The staff at IdentityTheftLabs.com have done this as they have made their ultimate purpose on the three companies.

IdentityTheftLabs.com relates that all three companies LoudSiren, LifeLock and Trusted Id are well backed financially, and are the established leaders in identity theft protection. They all belong to the league among the fastest growing companies in America, and rightfully so. All three companies set and resume fraud alerts and support their identity protection plan with one million dollars. They also remove clients from pre-authorized credit offers which have been known to be a source of identity theft. They all provide experts to defend victims if it comes to that point.



Rosa
Tony Francis asked:


Identity theft can happen to you anytime and anywhere. At this age of internet technology, you can already avail services that are available online. What can you do as an identity theft protection against either online or old-school identity thieves?

These days many of us do most of our shopping and banking in the Web for the sake of hassle-free buying. Many account numbers and passwords have been floating around. The first tip on how to protect yourself against identity thieves is to guide your information online.

Do not forget to clear your logins and password especially when you are using a public computer. It is better to change them monthly. This is a simple way of identity theft protection.

If you like to purchase online, use your credit card that has better guarantees under federal law than your online payment services or your debit card.

Be alert for phishing. These are spams or pop-ups that mimic legitimate banks or businesses that seek your personal information and sued it to steal your identity. Use websites with security controls before inputting personal data.

Second tip for your identity theft protection is always shred sensitive documents. These are your credit card applications, bills and anything with your personal information. Many identity thieves do dumpster-diving to gain personal details.

Dumpster-diving, although considered as old school, remains the most dangerous identity theft issues. Criminals would hunt through garbage for personal information. Study showed that 70 percent of household – sized trash bags contained a person’s full name and address and 30 percent contained a debit or credit card numbers.

The third tip is to monitor your bank and credit card statements for unusual information. Checking your accounts regularly so you know when a criminal already used your account. You would notice it when you do not make some purchases that were included in your bank statements.

The fourth tip for identity theft protection is to verify your mailing address on important accounts. Identity criminals may fill out change of address forms so that delinquent credit notices will be added to your paper billing.

The next and fifth tip is to keep an eye on your credit report. You can request free credit report every four months. You can order directly through the three bureaus named Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These bureaus can help you to detect flaws on your credit accounts.

Through ordering a credit report you can scan it for abnormal activity. These are accounts or credit cards you did not open. You can report it to your credit company provider for immediate actions.

The sixth tip is to follow up with creditors if your bills do not arrive on time. An identity thief may already change your address. Report it immediately to your creditors.

Destroy immediately unsolicited credit applications. Some criminals may pretend working on a credit company that would solicit for your personal information for them to use it fraudulently.

These steps are very helpful. Maintain alertness always. You do not know when identity thieves will steal your identity.



Jamie
Tony Francis asked:


What is Identity Theft? Identity theft is a crime in which a certain person uses another person’s information or identity in ways that involve fraud or deception, typically for their economic gain. They do this by using someone else identity instead of providing the correct and real information for their identities. And because of this actions the person, whose identity was wrongfully used by others, will suffer from financial hardships.

Today, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States. All people whose identity is in the hand of other people are all at risk of identity theft, so basically, everyone is at risk. That is why identity theft protection is very useful nowadays.

In the United States alone, an average of 27,000 people is being pilfered of their identities daily. And according to studies made by the Identity Theft Resource Center, for every second a person’s identity is being stolen. And for every three seconds, a person’s identity would be exposed to thieves.

There are different types of identity theft, giving enough reason for everyone to get identity theft protection. Here are the different types of identity theft:

The first is the Driver’s License Identity Theft. In this manner of stealing someone’s identity, the victim can be subjected to traffic violations he did not permit.

The second is Credit Identity Theft. Here the theft uses someone else’s personal information to acquire loans, and thus leaving the victim paying bills for the loans he or she is not enjoying.

The third type of identity theft and third reason to get identity theft protection is the Social Security Number Identity Theft. Using another person’s Social security Number, the thief would apply for a job. The thief would get the salary for that job, but the victim would be the one to pay for the taxes.

The fourth is the Medical Identity Theft. The thief would use another person’s identity for consultations, prescriptions, and treatments, in other words, the victims insurance would be used by the thief, making the victim to lose his or her insurance coverage.

Lastly is the fifth type of identity theft and another reason to get identity theft protection is the Character Identity Theft. In this type of identity theft involves crimes. The person, whose identity was used, will be subjected to subpoena and will be charged of crimes he or she did not commit.

And in addition to these types of identity theft everyone should be aware of, everyone should also be aware that the most common way of identity theft is through the internet.

Downloaded files like documents, attachments and applications are sometimes filled with viruses. These viruses are released to your computer when the downloaded files are accessed or opened.

Besides the internet, everyone should also be vigilant with phishing mails or fraud phone calls because these are also used to steal one’s identity. And having an identity theft protection secures you from being a victim or identity theft. Identity theft protection can be simple tips everyone could use to protect themselves against identity theft.

One tip is to update your anti virus software. Because most cases of identity theft occur online, having your antivirus software up to date is a good precaution against identity theft. Another tip is to filter phishing mails by confirming with the company if they really are asking you personal information by phone calls to their official hotlines.

There are a lot of tips that a person could use against identity theft, and all are found in the internet.



Dennis
Allison May asked:


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Have you ever tried shopping online? Why not? Many people find that online shopping is not only easy and convenient, but much cheaper as well. Internet merchants can afford to sell their products for lower prices because of a lower capital needed for maintaining an online store. But don’t forget about the risk of credit card fraud and identity theft when purchasing from the web.

You may not even be aware of it but other people may already be using your personal information to commit fraudulent crimes against you. For instance, one common strategy used by identity thieves is called “phishing”. In fact, this strategy has been used by ID thieves since the 1990s and has become more and more prevalent today.

How is the crime of phishing done? An identity thief will send an email to an unsuspecting victim, disguising as an email from a reputable company or online merchant like the IRS, Amazon, PayPal and other big names on the web. If you’re not aware of identity theft tricks, you may think that the email is indeed from a valid source.

You may be asked to click on a link that leads to a phishing website. This webpage was made to look just like the genuine company and it takes careful examination to recognize a fake one from the real one. The email may ask you to fill out the online form for them to verify your account. But upon submitting that online form, you may not know that you’re also handing out your personal information to identity thieves.

What You Should Do

The Federal Trade Commission warns all consumers against such tricks. Remember that trusted merchants and government agencies will not solicit personal information from consumers through an electronic message.

The best thing to do if you receive a suspicious email is to call the company who appeared to have sent it to confirm. Never attempt to open an email or click on the links in it.

Bear in mind that the URL of a secured website always begins with https://. You should also look for the pad locked icon in the bottom right corner of your browser. If you have been a victim of Identity Theft or credit card fraud, contact the FTC immediately.

Be Alert Against Online Identity Theft

When making an online purchase, check the background and reputation of the internet merchant you intend to purchase from. Don’t just compare shops based on the low prices they offer. If a certain online shop sells items at an incredibly low price, if it doesn’t have a solid track record of service to show, you could be in danger.

You may also prefer to send in your payment through a reputable online system like Pay Pal. This way, you don’t have to reveal your credit card’s number to anyone. See to it that the online shop uses a secured server. There must be a Privacy Policy provided on the site to show that they are concerned about protecting their customer’s personal information.



Larry
Mike Clover asked:


Current studies show that ID Theft is at epidemic proportions. The Federal Trade Commission surveys estimated that there are close to 9.9 million victims and growing by 2 to 3 million a year.

For individuals that are not victims of identity theft, the best thing you can do is check your credit report regularly, focusing on two categories.

* Inquiries from unfamiliar companies. Here we are talking about someone applying for something in your name in a state that you don’t live in. Remember inquiries are the result of you applying for credit.

* Unfamiliar Accounts (tradelines). Are there debts or new credit listed on your credit report that you are not familiar with?

There are 3 major Bureaus that provide services to monitor your credit report. These services give e-mails to you promptly if there are any changes to your report.

What to Do if ID Theft happens to you.

You want to keep a detailed log of events as you start the dispute process. You do this in case you run into problems with a creditor. The first step obviously is contact the 3 credit bureaus, local police, creditors, etc…… You keep detailed conversations logs with any of these entities you communicate with. Also keeps receipts, bills, or out of pocket expenses you incur during the process of disputing. I would also make note of the emotional stress and how it is affecting your work performance and personal relationships. In addition your expenses and time could be tax-deductible in certain circumstance.

Contact Law enforcement

Here is the properties procedure for contacting the authorities so you can file a formal report. You should include all fraudulent accounts in the report. As the Credit Bureaus say they are able to remove disputes, remember to keep a copy of the report number and contact info.

Who to contact:

* FTC.gov/bcp/coline/pubs/credit/affidavit.pdf

* Local Police Department

* FTC 800-438-4338 or 800?ID THEFT

Credit Bureaus – Steps to take with the CRAs

* Notify one of the credit bureaus fraud units that you are victim of Identity Theft. This Bureau will be responsible for telling the other 2 Bureaus. (Equifax: 800-525-6285; Experian: 888-397-3742; Trans Union: 800-680-7289)

* Tell Bureaus to flag you credit report with fraud alert

* Get a copy of your credit report with scores

* Once you have read your report, send a dispute letter, accompanied with police report along with the FTC fraud affidavit specifying which accounts are fraudulent.

* Subscribe to the Bureaus monitoring services of your credit report

* Consider signing up for Trusted ID services which will block your credit report so only you can use it.

* Ask the Bureaus to contact the creditors that fraudulent activities have taken place.

Debt Collectors- You will be getting calls from debt collectors more than likely. If they call you:

* Get the debt collectors companies name, address and there phone number. Let him or her know you are noting the time and date of the conversation in your log activity book

* Inform the collection agency you are a victim of Identity Theft

* Provide the FTC uniform fraud affidavit

* Ask for number and name of credit issuer.

* Send the debt collector a letter, stating that you do not owe this debt and that the account has been close.

* Request in writing that the account is being flagged as fraudulent, and is being closed. You also should request in writing that the fraudulent account is being removed from your credit report.

New accounts opened in your name: the Identity Thief has opened new accounts in your good name: what to do. The credit report you pulled should list all creditors that have accounts in your name with contact numbers.

* Notify each creditor of the identity theft that has taken place to you. You will be asked to send a fraud affidavit. (Be sure to put all of this in your log)

* Ask the creditors to send you any application or fraudulent activity that has happened in your good name.

* Add passwords to all accounts

* If the thief has got a hold of your checking account, credit cards, get replacements with new numbers. Call and request these accounts to be closed as well.

* Fill out FTC uniform fraud affidavit.

Your Checking account- If the thief has written checks in your name here is what you do.

* Call your local police, and file a report

* Call your bank and close the account immediately

* Remember to keep good logs

* Typically your bank will refund you your money, and ask for a copy of police report filed.

This stuff is serious business; I hope this will help you resolve issues involving identity theft to you.



Monica