February 02, 2008
Freeze Identity Thieves in Their Tracks
I have mentioned to you several times already that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country and you must at all times remain vigilant over your personal information.
I have been recommending using LifeLock to give you piece of mind however if you don’t want to pay the very small fee LifeLock charges to protect your good name then you must get busy and start implementing your self-directed identity theft protection.
Here is one way to protect your identity:
To begin, you must know that the 3 major credit bureaus all have all your personal financial information so you should consider putting a freeze on credit reports as a precaution to ensure that people that should not be viewing your credit history and information are not able to get information about your bank accounts, loans, leases and other sensitive financial information.
Your credit reports contain enough information that an identity thief could get enough information about you to steal your identity and ruin your life
Identity thieves who get enough personally identifying information about you such as when you were born, your address or your SSN can take that information and apply for lines of credit in your name.
By placing a freeze on your credit reports it will avert any attempts for identity thieves to gain access to your credit information and should the would-be thief get enough information about you, when they try to apply for a credit card or loan their efforts will be in vain because the lending company will not grant the line of credit if they can’t view the credit file at the bureaus. In order to grant access to anybody that wants to run a credit check on you would need your permission first.
To place a freeze on your credit reports send each of the major credit bureaus a letter indicating that you would like to have your credit reports frozen. Here are the addresses of the credit bureaus.
Equifax Security Freeze
P.O. Box 105788
Atlanta, Ga. 30348
• Send request by certified mail.
• Include full name, current and previous addresses for past two years, proof of current address (such as a utility bill), Social Security number and date of birth.
Experian
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, Texas 75013
• Send request by certified or overnight mail.
• Include full name with middle initial
• Include current address and previous addresses for past two years, Social Security number, birth date and two proofs of residence (government-issued ID such as a driver's license and a recent utility bill, insurance statement or bank statement).
TransUnion
Fraud Victim Assistance Department
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, Calif. 92834
• Send request by certified or overnight mail.
• Include full name with middle initial and Jr./Sr., etc.
• Include current address and previous addresses for past two years, Social Security number and birth date.
For non-victims, there is typically a fee of $5 to $20 to enact a freeze, as well as a fee to temporarily lift or permanently remove it. The best way to find the information for your state is to go to the Consumers Union Website .
I think you will find this task to be a bit overwhelming and isn’t necessarily fool proof so do take further action and sign-up for the identity theft prevention that LifeLock offers. It doesn’t cost much and will virtually eliminate the threat.
January 28, 2008
LifeLock - Why You Need It
When I first started receiving questions about identity theft at Crediteria.com about LifeLock, an identity theft prevention service, like most people I didn’t fully realize just how big this problem was. Sure, I knew it was out there so I had the editorial team dig into more information to help those who think they are a victim.
Here are some facts on why you might want to consider using a service such as LifeLock:
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States in the last 5 years. According to the Federal Trade Commission, over 27 million Americans were victims of identity fraud and the FBI says identity theft is growing at a rate of 500,000 to 700,000 new cases every year.
What might cause you to think you are a victim of identity theft?
According to the results of the National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice they found this:
Over 30% of people become aware they are a victim of identity theft when they notice money is mysteriously missing from their bank account or when the see unknown charges on their credit card statement and another 25% find out they are a victim when they receive a call from a credit bureau inquiring about a loan they didn’t apply for.
Another very common way people find out they are victims of identity theft when they are denied credit.
According to the FBI it takes the average consumer about a year before they find out they are an identity theft victim. A lot of damage can occur over the course of a full year!
On average it will take the average person 175 hours of your time to clear their name and will cost roughly $1500. The losses typically go deeper due to lost wages for time off work, on average lost wages amount to $1200 and some reports indicate that 20% of people that are victims of identity theft lose over $5000.
The tolls goes further than monetary loss, the emotional impact of victims is something that can not be measured in a dollar amount. Some victims of identity theft have said that they would have rather had a physical crime, such as mugging or robbery, occur than have the emotional scares identity theft leaves.
It is crucial that consumer be proactive on keeping tabs on their identity by checking their credit report on a regular basis or enroll in an identity theft prevention program such as that offered by LifeLock. Nobody cares more about your financial situation than you do so make sure you take precautions.
If you haven’t made monitoring your identity part of your everyday life then it’s time to take action and considering manually checking your credit report on a quarterly basis. A better idea is to take a proactive stance and implement a service such as LifeLock to ensure you don’t become a victim in the first place. No matter what service you deem appropriate, it’s important for you to actively monitor your own identity to avoid the emotional pain and financial loss that identity theft causes.
January 15, 2008
Identity Theft Can Happen to Anyone
Identity theft can happen to even the savviest of financial people. Identity theft is not a problem isolated to average people.
Recently, Nancy Trejos, a personal finance columnist with the Washington Post was a victim. You would think that a financial columnist with a major newspaper would never be a victim of identity theft, but it happened.
A thief managed to get Nancy’s Bank of America debt card number and used it to make a purchase of over $800 of shoes. The thief used her debit card to make an online purchase and arranged for an in-store pickup of the merchandise.
Fortunately for Nancy, the store clerk became concerned when the person picking up the shoes could not produce the debit card used to make the purchase.
This brings up the point that you should NEVER leave your debit receipts with clerks at stores to throw in the garbage. Every receipt from every transaction must be destroyed or securely stored, perhaps in a safe at home, to prevent identity thieves from acquiring your personal information.
Identity theft is a massive problem that is only getting worse so you must be vigilant at all times and be sure to take every precaution to ensure nobody can get any personally identity information about your finances.
You must be wary at all times as identity theft happens in many forms, such as stolen debit card information to registering credit, loans and utility services such as cell phones in your name.
To prevent your debit card information from being stolen remember to shred all receipts and to protect yourself from having id thieves register credit cards or loans in your name I strongly recommend that you considering enrolling in an identity theft monitoring program to ensure that your name is protected from this horrible crime.
Posted by Colin at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)January 07, 2008
Identity Theft Worksheet Reminder
For those of you that read my blog on a regular basis, I wrote a post the other day about the identity theft protection service called LifeLock. I highly recommend that you check out my review of LifeLock and register for their service today!
Why do I say this?
I just received a phone call from a lady that just had her identity stolen. I won’t mention her name here to protect her privacy. She thinks that the identity thief got her information from a credit card she holds.
Because identity theft can hit anybody at anytime and it’s such a growing problem you need to maximize your personal protection from the scam bag thieves that are out there.
As a reminder, just before I did an interview on the Code Red Radio show in Washington DC when I spoke about how to prevent identity thieves from swiping your identity, I put together an identity theft worksheet to help you if your identity has been stolen.
I suggest you review this so that you can be fully educated to protect yourself if you should fall victim to this horrid crime.
LifeLock Protection
As I do with every New Year, I reflect upon things and think about what I need to do to make my life better. While watching the news I saw an advertisement on TV for LifeLock that had Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, displaying his social security number on a huge banner in a very busy city.
I’m sure you have seen the commercial where Todd publicly displays his social security number to prove how confident he is with LifeLock’s service.
So Todd displays this on the Life Lock website and billboards in public places:
My name is Todd Davis My social security number is 457-55-5462
Now that take serious guts and to display or SSN is absolutely nuts, I would never recommend anybody do this but Todd is that confident that he puts his SSN out there for every would-be identity thieve to go try to get credit in Todd’s name.
Guess what? Nobody has been able to steal Todd’s identity. While he is absolutely insane for publicly displaying his social security number like this, it goes to show just how good LifeLock is at protecting his identity.
If Todd Davis can publicly display his SSN like this, imagine how you can be protected when you likely don’t reveal your Social Security Number on public billboards and national television ads in the way Todd does.
Mr. Davis would only do such a public display if he was completely confident with the service Life Lock provides.
I am personally enrolled in the service but did so only after being a victim of identity theft myself. It was only by luck that I discovered the attempt to steal my identity that I didn’t succumb to greater loss.
If you don’t have a protection mechanism in place for your good name today then you are at great risk of having your identity stolen and will feel the pain that millions of victims do from this horrid crime.
Protect yourself from the anguish that identity theft causes and get LifeLock today!
Posted by Colin at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)June 16, 2007
Gas Stations Credit Cards and Identity Theft
I just read a very interesting news story about some gas stations limiting pay at the pump credit card transactions due to the growing problems of identity theft.
Shawn Bloomfield of Allentown PA said that he has to use 2 different credit cards to fuel his truck because the pumps stop delivering fuel to curb the use of stolen cards.
Yeah, that's going to solve the problem. It's only going to grow the problem of identity theft in my opinion. Thieves that can swipe one identity can steal multiple identities. If Shawn can use two credit cards to fuel his vehicle then can't an identity thief use two stolen cards to fuel vehicles.
While identity theft is a huge problem in today's society my hope is the President's Task Force on Identity theft helps curb the problem.
In the meantime I do suggest you consider reading my review of LifeLock Identity Protection service.
For less than $10 per month you can have some peace of mind.
Posted by Colin at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)April 24, 2007
President’s Identity Theft Task Force
At a recent authentication workshop, a plan to fight identity theft was released. The task force on identity theft is fronted by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras.
In plain English, what the strategic plan to fight identity theft involves is this:
Better prosecution of identity crimes
Improved sensitive data protection maintained by private and public sectors.
Improvements in assistance for victims of identity theft
The President’s Identity Task Force plans to make broad sweeping changes to current policies as well as exact items to change in law and education.
Among the changes
Less use of SSN’s by government agencies. Your Social Security Number is the single most important piece of information to protect in cases of identity theft
Increase consumer awareness through education
Until new laws are in place, it is up to you to make sure identity thieves don’t ruin your life.
Identity theft can happen to anybody at anytime. So make sure you never give out your personally identifying information. To ensure your identity is secure I highly recommend spending less than $10 per month and subscribe to LifeLock’s identity protection service. You have nothing to lose and your identity to protect.
If you have questions or comments please leave them here, if you don’t see the comment boxes then click on the comment link below.
Posted by Colin at 08:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)April 11, 2007
Identity Theft Prevent Phishing Scams
Identity Theft Prevention – What is Phishing?
Identity theft is a crime that occurs in many different ways. In order to prevent identity theft you must know how criminals acquire your personal information.
Today I am going to educate you about an id theft scam known as phishing.
Phishing is when a criminal contacts you, usually via email and sometimes telephone, masquerading as a well known company.
Quite often you will see email enter your inbox that appears to be from a legitimate company such as ebay or a national bank. What is happening is known as spoofing. The criminal uses technology to give the appearance that their email is coming from a reputable company.
The phishing scam will ask that you enter your account details because there has been a problem. Quite often the criminal will make statements such as this is for your safety and protection that you enter the information into the form on the web page they send.
To you, everything looks legit because the criminal has taken the time to reproduce a replica of the trusted company’s site giving you the feeling that it is the "real site"
But, it’s not the real site.
Beware when you receive email from companies asking for your personal information, quite often it’s a phishing scam.
If you are not sure, contact the company immediately.
How can you tell if the company is real or not?
Look at your address navigation bar at the top of your browser to ensure that the site is the actual company’s site. The criminals will use a web address that contains the name but is not the real company.
For example a legitimate address for eBay would be www.ebay.com, whereas a criminal trying to hijack your personal information would use a site of their own such as
www.HereAreSomeWords.com/EBAY?verify your ebay info
What the criminals are doing is trying to confuse you into believing that since they have used the word ebay in their file names that you will believe this is truly ebay.
Again, never respond to these types of emails or phone calls, always contact the company directly
April 05, 2007
Prevent Identity Theft – It Can Ruin Your Life
I felt compelled to get some information about identity theft posted on Crediteria.com after watching a local news story about how identity thieves were using wireless technology to plant a bug in a point of sale terminal at a local mall to remotely steal the information including your Personal Identification Number (PIN).
After hijacking your bank account information the thieves then went and drained bank accounts. Yes, this story is painful for those who were robbed in broad daylight! I had recommended that you use a service such as LifeLock to secure your personal identity and prevent it from being ripped out from under you
But, identity theft goes far beyond the pain of being robbed in such a fashion, theft of your identity can actually ruin your life!
I decided to read more about the impacts other individuals have had due to low life scum identity thieves.
While reading through several personal stories I am absolutely appalled and frightened by the long lasting damage ID theft can cause.
Here is an overview in point form of how bad things can get when your identity is stolen
While not all of the above points will happen in every case of identity fraud, this is what can happen to anybody at anytime if the thief is motivated enough to press on with your good name!
I am very serious when I say that you need to protect yourself from these criminals! Don’t let identity theft ruin your life, get protection for you and your family now!
After the research I have done I have subscribed to LifeLock because of the stellar identity security they provide at an incredibly reasonable price. I chose LifeLock both because of the incredible service they provide and because they are not trying to gouge me on the cost of their service, I strongly urge you to get LifeLock to protect your identity as soon as possible to avoid the headaches.
Read other reviews and opinions of 
lifelock now if you aren't sure if an idenity protection service is worth your while.
March 31, 2007
Resources for Protection From Identity Thieves
Identity Theft – Worksheets to Protect Yourself
If you suspect that you are a victim of identity theft you need to take action immediately. Identity thieves work fast, here is what you MUST do to protect yourself from the evil-doers that hijack your personal information:
Step 1 - Identity Theft Protection – Contact the Credit Bureaus
Contact the major credit bureaus immediately and have a fraud alert placed on your credit file
Here are the numbers for the credit bureaus:
Equifax 1-800-525-6285
Experian 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion 1-800-680-7289
When you call the bureaus ask to speak with the people in charge of fraud
Write down the following information and keep it in a safe place for future reference:
1. The date and time that you contacted each of the credit bureaus
2. The first and last name of the person you spoke with at the credit bureau
3. Take notes of the conversation with the bureau representative
Tip: DO NOT be shy. Ask the person at the credit bureau to slow down while you take copious notes about the conversation you are having. It’s your financial future at stake here and the person you are speaking to will be very gracious towards you. If they are not gracious, you have their full name and you should file a complaint with their supervisor.
Again, take note of the supervisor’s full name and contact details such as email address and direct phone number.
Step 2 - Identity Theft Protection – Contact Lenders and Creditors
Make sure you contact all lenders to let them now that your identity has been stolen or that you suspect it has been stolen.
Record the persons name, time of day and notes about your discussion. The same as you did when contacting the credit bureaus.
Step 4 - Identity Theft Protection – File Police Report
Now that you have taken care of steps 1 through 3 to “stop the leak” by deploying immediate damage control, call the police and files a report with them.
As with everybody you speak with, record notes about your conversations.
Step 5 - Identity Theft Protection – File Report with FTC
File your report with the Federal Trade Commission here
Step 6 - Identity Theft Protection – Stop Payment on Checks
Put on stop payment on your checks by calling your financial institute as well as the following services:
SCAN 1-800-262-7771
TeleCheck 1-800-710-9898
Certegy 1-800-437-5120
Global Payments 1-800-766-2748
Further Issues to Consider
Text here summarizing what needs to be done…
Fraudulent Cell Phone and Long Distance Calls
Report to your state Public Utility Commission
Report misuse of your phone services here:
1-888-225-5322 OR 1-888-CALL FCC
Misuse of SSN to Get Driver’s Licence
Visit the State Department of Motor Vehicles at:
Stolen Home Delivery Mail
Contact the US Postal Service online at:
Or
Consult your local phone book for the United States Postal Service listing in your area. Look up online at:
When your identity has been hijacked by low life criminals it is an incredibly stressful time but do what it takes to maintain a clear and calm mind.
Systematically go through the process of stopping the problem and in the future you will be very knowledgeable as to what measures you need to keep in place to ensure your identity is secure.
Because of just how savvy identity thieves have become is why I recommend having some form of identity protection in place. The identity protection company that impresses me most is LifeLock, if you don’t have a credit and identity monitoring service in place I strongly urge you to register right now for some form of monitoring protection for everyday peace of mine.