id theft fraud prevention

king’e asked:


I get close 20 or more eMails per day. they take alot of time to sort out the important ones and 4/5ths of them are people trying to sell me this or that.I feel there is a network passing the e_mail around among some people who scammed me money in telemarketting. Is this a kind of ID theft? How do I get out without having to change the eMail address?

Gladys

John Goldman asked:


Identity theft is a very serious crime 2which involves a theft who uses personal information, financial and credit information of an individual for almost any purpose. The FTC or federal trade commission has reported that nearly 8 million US citizens had become victims of identity theft during 2005 and this figure has increased by nearly 25 percent by the year 2007. Therefore protecting your identity from theft is critical and the impacts of this crime can be devastating on your mental wellbeing and also your credit or financial status.

Emotional impact of id theft

Identity theft can sometimes have a huge impact on the emotional health of the victim and most of whom are unaware of where or how the criminals have availed their personal information. Most of the people find themselves feeling angry, vulnerable, stressed and depressed when they recover from id theft. Fortunately, there are several identity theft support groups started all over the country to help these people recover from this disaster. These groups also help the victims deal with the emotional sides of theft and assist them in moving forward with their life.

Credit impact

Your credit score and repot would also be greatly affected if you are a identity theft victim. Although according to law you are protected from being financially accountable to the fraud committed under your identity, your credit would still be affected much before you can realize you are a victim. In order to correct your credit information you should first contact the credit reporting companies and the businesses where a fraudulent account has been opened. You must also continue to check your credit reports almost every year to make sure that no fraud has occurred.

Driver’s license

Most of the identity theft victims are so concerned about the consequences of id theft that they even forget that this criminal might also be using their driver’s license and other types of identity. A number of id theft criminals completely assume the identity of the victim by availing their identification and driver’s license with new information and picture on it. In case this happens to you then you might find you have several criminal complaints and outstanding tickets that result from this fraud. However when your passport is stolen then it can be a lot difficult to rove your nationality.

Financing

Availing financial help for a new purchases can become a lot difficult after identity theft. However if you have followed the right procedure with credit reporting companies then a fraud alert would be placed on the reports. This means that when you apply for new accounts, you will have to offer additional information to prove your identity. Although this is for your protection much of the amenities extended to you during the early days would no longer apply. These amenities include online access to credit decisions and quick credit approval.

Economical impact

Identity theft also has a dramatic impact on economy of a country. According to the FTC estimates businesses have lost above $50 billion because of this fraud while they have also spend more than $2 billion just to avoid the losses and resolve the consequences.



Pauline

Ed Opperman asked:


(c) 2008 Ed Opperman

(What is Identity Theft and How to Avoid It)

O.K., I’ll protect myself from identity theft; but first I have to know what it is. So, what exactly is identity (ID) theft?

Succinctly put, it is the crime of obtaining your personal and / or financial information (i.e. name, address, Social Security number, credit card information, bank information, etc.) to assume your identity to either commit a criminal act, fraudulently secure credit or services, make purchases or secure money while impersonating you.

Several Federal agencies in tracking the incidences of identity theft have found this crime to be on the rise and the fastest growing in the U.S. The following alarming statistics provide this information:

More than 9 million new victims per year for two straight years Over 30 million identified new victims in past five years Is the top consumer complaint to the FTC five years in a row

How is it possible that this incredible number of people fall victim to this crime? There are several avenues through which dumb criminals fraudulently obtain credit in your name, all of which you can do something to stop.

Several years ago, many fell victim due to their disposal methods of personal papers and files. Criminals had a field day with just picking up you garbage from curbside, taking it home and gleaning from its contents your Social Security number, bank, credit card and other personal information.

Many people have now become aware of this and aggressively secure their personal documentation. While this is a good first step, another avenue of breech is your friendly credit-reporting agency. That’s right; I did say your credit-reporting agency.

It seems that it’s too easy for someone to impersonate you in the process of securing credit in your name. That’s because Credit Reporting Agencies do not meticulously check the information on credit applications. They do not have in place a checks and balance system of correctly identifying the applicant. These Credit Reporting Agencies do not screen applicants with personally identifying queries designed to identify the credit requestor definitively.

Once a credit application has been approved you may be going on with your day-to-day life until somewhere out of the blue you begin to get nasty calls and correspondence from a creditor whom you’ve never heard of. This is your first inkling that something is terribly wrong.

Then, when you’ve determined what happened, not only are you stuck with the bill but also with a Credit Reporting Agency’s demand that you pay them $35 to obtain your credit report. What’s that for? Well, to see if someone actually did get credit in your name without your knowing it.

“Wait a minute,” I can hear you say. “You mean to tell me that not only do I have a new bill that I did not create but it came by way of a watch-dog agency that should have caught it but didn’t?” That’s right. So, now they’ll tell you, by way of the credit report, that they actually did let someone get credit in your name but, that’s not their fault. Yeah, right!!

So, how do you avoid being the victim of identity theft? Ask yourself, which do you prefer, an ounce of prevention or a pound of cure?

If you answered an ounce of prevention, you’d be on target. Most identity programs however, suggest that you work with the pound of cure premise. That is, periodically obtain your credit report to see if anyone has already secured credit in your name. That will only let you know whether someone has already ruined your credit, run up bills in your name and where, when and how much of a good time they had spending your money.

Wouldn’t it be far better to determine your vulnerability to identify theft and take steps to avoid it in the first place or the ounce of prevention tact, if you will? That’s why securing the services of an investigative professional is so important in this 21st century; they are your ounce of prevention. Criminals will continue to create new ways to steal your identity but investigative professionals will stop them dead in their tracks and before you become their next victim.



Carla

John Goldman asked:


Medical identity theft is a type of fraud activity which is a growing crime in the world and specially United States. The internet technology has contributed largely to the fallout but the privacy laws make these problems quit hard to resolve. After the thieves are equipped with the information of an unknown patients they would have the power to cause considerable damages.

However after they have claimed the identity the thieves would also be able to receive medical benefits in the name of the victim like medical visits, discount prescription drugs and treatment. Additionally the thief might also file fraudulent claims that might leave the victim with a number of unpaid bills, a wrecked credit score, annoying calls from different collection agencies and worst they would have inaccurate medical records.

Impact of medical identity theft

The medical identity theft victims would not even know about this crime until they find a huge bill on their name. However after they realize what the problem is the law that is put in place to help the consumer actually makes it difficult to prove medical identity theft.

According to the federal privacy laws like the accountability act and health insurance portability, the health care providers should receive penalty on releasing person information of an individual without following the strict protocol. In case of medical identity theft it is generally the victim who is denied access to their own personal information.

As there are the major credit bureaus for your credit reports, there is no main repository selected for maintaining medical records. There are also no services with excellent database which can collect and monitor information about medical history and health insurance plan of an individual. Therefore it leaves the patient with time consuming job of contacting all the providers the have visited to avail their information.

Additionally there is also not specific program designed for medical identity theft victims to fix potentially hazardous mistakes and dispute false claims within the records. This is much more than a financial nightmare as it can also have serious health risks. In case the healthcare service provider has maintained fraudulent records in your name then you next visit might often result in inaccurate drug prescription or diagnosis.

Medical identity theft protection

Although recovering from medical identity theft is a huge challenge, your best defence would be prevention. Therefore you can just follow some simple ways to stay away from medical id theft

Prepare – As you are now aware of medical id theft consequences and the risks involved it would be wise to start gathering your records before someone else attempts. Make sure you contact every medical service provider you have visited and request for a copy of your medical records.

Communicate – It is important that you always stay on top regarding your medical insurance claims. You can contact a representative to request documentation for every claim you have filed and was paid on your behalf.

Read carefully – Finally it is very important that you carefully read every invoice offered by the service provider. It might hold true details of your insurance benefits and so make sure you are familiar with all the benefits in their services. In case you don’t understand make sure it is cleared our before you sign.



Bradley

Am asked:


Ok besides the @ssholes who go into it for information gathering to rip off people (like ID theft), the other side of dumpster diving is for free stuff even eatable food. I will admit that a lot of people throw away working computers by sitting them beside the trash been so it only makes sense that someone re-uses them instead of sending the toxic materials to go in a junk yard.

Colleen

Kevin asked:


im young and live in nevada, and i kno it was my address but dam idk!

should i worry for identity theft? or someone stalking me?

or em i overthinking it?

Duane

homedocny asked:


I’ve been a victim of ID theft before and dont trust brokers, agents and online websites with these details they really dont need to give me a quote.

Tamara

Vijayanand asked:


Mike was like millions of Americans. He worked hard, was cautious with his spending and even paid off his credit card each month. He thought he was doing everything right. Then, something unexpected happened. He started getting calls from collection agencies. They were collecting on credit cards and other lines of credit Mike never opened. Mike had been the victim of ID theft.

Things went down hill fast for Mike’s credit. He quickly realized that there were several credit cards opened in his name fraudulently, and each one had overdue balances of thousands of dollars. Those balances had been festering on Mike’s credit report for months without his knowledge causing Mike’s credit rating to plummet to an abysmal 530.

This low credit rating affected Mike in numerous ways. He needed a new car, but was unable to get approval for a car loan. His oldest son was heading to college, but the school loans Mike applied for were rejected. Even Mike’s insurance premiums went up as a result of his low credit score. Mike knew he needed to do something fast.

Mike quickly discovered that the task of restoring his credit and good name was not as simple as he thought it would be. He would have to contact all of the credit agencies, place fraud alerts on his credit and investigate where else his identity had been compromised among other things. Where was Mike going to find the time to do all of these things? He worked full time and had a family to think about. Mike felt like he was caught in an impossible situation. In the end, it took Mike hundreds of hours to restore his credit rating and correct the errors on his credit report.

Once his credit was back to normal, Mike was determined never to allow such a thing to happen to him again. Mike had a friend who had gone through a similar experience just a year before. He recommended ID TheftSmart to Mike. ID TheftSmart is an Identity Theft Prevention and restoration service offered by Comodo, an innovative identity and trust assurance company. If Mike had already had ID TheftSmart program when he was victimized, his pre-theft credit status would have been restored without having to sacrifice hundreds of hours of his time.

To Mike’s surprise, he found that the licensed investigators at Comodo were prepared to do the lion’s share of the work to restore their client’s damaged credit. They work with the credit agencies to correct the issues on a credit report, place fraud alerts and investigate other issues related to ID Theft like criminal records, fraudulent check activity and other fraudulent uses of a social security number. Some of these issues Mike had not even considered when working to restore his damaged credit.

Mike decided to use the ID TheftSmart program to protect himself from future assaults on his credit, and you can do the same. The ID TheftSmart program monitors your credit on an ongoing basis so that you don’t have to go through the same ordeal Mike did. ID TheftSmart will alert you whenever someone tries to open a line of credit in your name. If your credit is compromised, the Identity Fraud Restoration services do most of the work to resolve your identity theft issues.



Nathaniel

John Goldman asked:


Protection against id theft has become an important factor where the statistics for identity theft is constantly increasing in the United States. There are some simple steps you can take to prevent someone from stealing you identity and using your personal and financial information for their benefit.

You should know that there are also increasing number of victims of online identity theft. You might have just purchased a single item online but soon found that your credit has been compromised with an unknown person. You might have clicked something or provided your information to a website that was secure to you, but you find that all your financial information, bills and cards have been hacked.

How identity theft occurs

There are several similar identity theft cases being reported. Unfortunately they have also become the most common issue at the internet scene specially when more people opt for purchasing stuffs online. The crime takes place when the cyberspace criminal uses the information of another person and pretends to do things in their name.

This is generally done with your social security number, bank statements, credit cards and other personal information. The most common method of availing this information is by just stealing your wallet or by searching through your trash box for any imprecisely thrown away bank statements or any important document.

Protect yourself from id theft

When you know how these thieves work to steal your information and by what means they can hack your sensitive date can help you stay away from being another victim to the growing theft number. There are some simple ways you can protect yourself against id theft.

Firstly you should protect your social security number. It would be safe if you wish not to carry your social security number in your wallet as having access to this information can let criminals know about your credit history, charge accounts, bank account and utility accounts. When someone else gets hold of this information they can even open new accounts of credit or just obtain a new driver’s license in your name. Therefore you should prevent giving your social security number to those who feel dubious to you.

The other best way is to fight back phishing. This is the act of sending emails where criminals pretend to be from a legitimate company or enterprise in order to phish your private information which can be used for any cases in identity theft. These emails can actually lead you to some fake websites which ask for private information such as credit card information and passwords.

Make sure you ignore these emails and do not offer any information. Apart from this protect your personal computer from any virus or spyware attack. You should also use strong and difficult passwords for your email and all the other online accounts. You can use spyware protection, firewalls and virus protection software to keep your computer safe. In case you feel being phished or scammed and are suspicious about being a victim it is often recommended you instantly report to the officials like the social security fraud hotline.



Victor

stonerosedesigndotcom asked:


I am a sole proprietor who creates websites. My clients pay me with a check made out to my name. Many of them are requesting my “tax ID” number but I don’t have one as I don’t sell anything but my services. I don’t want to give out my social security number for fear of privacy theft.

What should I do?

Judy