Ever ask your self, What is Identity Theft? What do I need to look for? How can I protect myself from this fast growing international and national trend? Is there a Credit Watch bureau that will monitor my credit and notify me of any changes or suspicious activity that may occur regarding my credit identity history? Where do I report Identity Theft? Is there anything else that I need to know?
Well, we have a couple of solutions for you to these questions. It is amazing at how this type of trend have just taken off; something like it is a new type of business of something. I do not understand how anyone can live impersonating as someone else. Take on another person’s name, social security number, and over all ID. How do you sign someone else’s name to documents and then be able to sleep at night? I do not understand this. It is something like the victim is being held up or robbed unknowingly. Identification theft cost companies some 47.6 billion dollars in previous reports in 2002, and we can only imagine what the current statistics are.
What is Identity Theft?
Identity theft is when someone takes on the role of being another person and obtains credit cards, loans, and various other financial debts. ITADA describes ID Fraud as “it relates to activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information". The Code now makes possession of any "means of identification" to "knowingly transfer, possess, or use without lawful authority". It is now a federal crime, alongside unlawful possession of identification documents. A further example of fraud is when person 1 obtains a loan from a financial institution impersonating person 2. Person 1 uses person 2 information that he may have obtained in some kind of trickful or fraudulent way. After a fraudster manages to get their hands on your personal information, the sky then becomes the limit and the only way to identify this type of activity is to randomly or annually get your free credit report While there is no set meaning for the term Identity Theft, there is certainly the same MO and profiles that you would be able to identity if you are a victim of this growing POP trend. Identity theft is used for countless reasons and the main channels are media and website. Hackers can obtain your personal information from people who shop on sites that are not secure. Web stores that do not have a SSL, are able to have hacker’s hi-jack the customer’s information and then proceed to assume their identity. If the site has a SSL cert, this means that it is secure and can not easily be hacked. Before this White collar internet crime epidemic, the more traditional crimes were money laundering, dead beat dads avoiding child support, documents being forged, stock market manipulations and terrorism. Now, with ID theft at an all time high, this has moved to the forefront and is the most reported international crime today. People are assuming the identity of children, senior citizens, people who are deceased, and people who live in other countries. There are many reports daily that are reported of their identities being stolen. This growing epidemic of counterfeits that are posing as someone else using there identities, is really a problem for honest good hard working people.
How can I protect myself from this fast growing international and national trend?
Some prevention tips you may want to keep in mind are to shred all your unused financial documents, mail, and other information that may contribute to a breach in your identity. Make sure that you keep check on your credit reports each year. If you keep a check each year, you will be able to identify any problems and react a lot sooner. You may also sign up for our news fraud letter. We notify other fellow members of our newsletter who wants to fight fraud also with the latest tips, prevention methods, and scams. Below are a few tools that may help you to protect your self against identity theft
What do I need to look for?
You will need to monitor regularly your credit reports, financial banking documents and account statements. This is the very first initial steps because if you keep a close watch on these sort of items, you will be able to catch identity theft in its early stages. By catching this crime early, it will result in little to no damage to your name, credit history, and reputation. If you do not have the time or think that you may forget to monitor or request your credit reports regularly, then you may want to check out a major credit bureau and sign up for there identity monitoring program .
Is there a Credit Monitoring company that will monitor my credit and notify me of any changes or suspicious activity that may occur regarding my credit identity history?
There are many different identification protection products and or solutions available to protect your identity. You may want to use a major credit reporting bureau like Experian.com which offers many different products to guard against ID Theft, at affordable prices. Get Your Equifax Credit Report Now!
Depending upon the service that you elect to enroll in, you will be notified immediately if something changes on your credit. Normally, the notifications are done by either telephone, email, or mail. The most common alerts are the e-alerts. However, the monitoring is truly a must, so that at all times there is someone watching your credit and making sure that your identity is not stolen or compromised. There are a huge variety of Credit Protection Products that you may find beneficial to you. Please be sure to use some sort of method to protect yourself from fraudulent transactions using your identity.
Where do I report Identity Theft?
There are many different places to report Fraud and or Identity theft to. We have done a little research for you that you may find to be beneficial to you. Please check out the email addresses below:
Government Fraud Agencies:
Federal Trade Commission - http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/
FBI - http://www.fbi.gov/
Non-Profit
Identity Theft Resource Center: http://www.idtheftcenter.org/
National Center for Victims of Crime: http://www.ncvc.org/
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: http://www.privacyrights.org/
The National Fraud Information Center: http://www.fraud.org/
The National White Collar Crime Center: http://www.nw3c.org/
Please feel free to contact any of the links above to report your case of identity theft to the appropriate links above. We really hope that we have provided to you use full information. And provided you with contact information that would help you should you ever endure this drastic Endeavour.
Is there anything else that I need to know?
Most victims that find there selves a victim of identity theft do not even know where to, how to report the incident, or how to file a complaint. If you think that you have been a victim of Identity Theft, then please do not take this easy. Your entire life may be compromised due to a thief that may be trying to leave you bankrupt. Identity theft can leave you in a lot of financial difficulties and with a lot of responsibilities and obligations. If you think that you have been a victim of Identity fraud theft, please pay close attention to these next steps that you will find to be very beneficial to you.
Place a Fraud Alert on your credit reports. By doing this you will prevent any additional accounts from opening under your name. Immediately contact at least on of major credit card beauru, Equifax, Experian, and Trans union. These are the 3 major credit reporting agency that you would be able to file a complaint. Most centers have a 24hour 1-800- toll free number that you would be able to place the fraud alert on your credit and report it also. Log on to Equifax and Get Your Equifax Credit Report Now!
Once you have placed an alert on your credit with a reporting agency, have requested and received a copy of your free credit report, then review each item 1 by 1 on your report. Pay close attention to detail regarding the accounts on your report. If you have any item that you do not recognize or you think is fraudulent, report it immediately to the fraud department of each company. Make sure that you also place the information in writing and send supporting documents as proof of your dispute. Make sure that you receive a letter from each company regarding your identity theft dispute. This is a crucial part of your identity theft investigation.
Inform the FTC or Federal Trade Commission by filing a complaint. Reports that are filed with the FTC are normally compiled within a database and the information is used to help enforcement officials across the nation track down identity thieves. These reports are crucial factors that have taken this epidemic from the back and placed it on the fore front. Your reports give a face to these fraudsters and a lead to help bring them down.
Contact your local police / authorities to file a report where ever the crime took place. If you are not able to locate the source, then you may want to inform the
Internet Crime Complaint Center, they may be able to assist you in the right
Right direction for a speedy resolution. Make sure that you keep a copy of your
Just in case if you need to provide it to someone. Remember, make copies of your
Letters, correspondence and the such that you may need to supply to companies
Information regarding your fraud claim. Never give away your originals.
Make sure that you sign up for a credit monitoring company or major credit bureau to monitor your credit history. Make sure that you check you obtain your Free Credit Reports. You may also want to take advantage of the many other fraud detection features that the bureau may have that will help with detection and prevention, should this ever happen in the future.
If you have been a victim of fraud and you can’t seem to get any where on your own, seek the advice of a lawyer. There are tons of attorneys that are available that would assist you in this matter. If you need the assistance of an attorney, and simply can not afford one at the time due to the recent financial strain of fraud, affordable legal assistance can still be made available to you. You can pre-pay, set up payment plans, receive discounted rates, and unlimited legal phone advice all for as little as $26.00 per month. All of the attorneys are affordable and conveniently located in your area. After you become a member, you can select from a list of Affordable Attorneys in your area that would be able to assist you in your time of need. If you need the help of an attorney, and you can not afford one at present, please do not let that stop you, feel free to take advantage of this and get affordable legal counsel now !