Picture yourself walking down the street, all alone. It’s late
at night. It’s a bit brisk, and the wind is blowing through the
tall buildings on both sides of you. Suddenly, from out of
nowhere, someone runs by you, knocks you over, grabs your
wallet, and takes off.
It sounds like a scene from a movie, and there may come a time
in the future where this type of person-to-person crime is only
found in movies. Why would anyone rob a bank, or rob an
individual, when they could simply use a person’s information to
obtain employment, credit cards, and lines of credit?
By now, everyone knows what Identity Theft is. Identity Theft
has been showing up in the news for several years, and there has
been a large public awareness campaign since the FTC Report in
September 2003.
In their report, the FTC shared that the average Identity Theft
victim spends over $1,400.00, and more than 200 hours, just to
clear their good name. Reports now are saying that victims can
end up spending much, much more in terms of time, money, and
frustration.
Other people may be willing to spend that kind of time and
money, but if you don’t have an extra $1400 or 200 hours, read
on!
What is Identity Theft?
Identity Theft couldn’t happen to me, right?
What can I do to protect myself?
There is good news.
Identity Theft Insurance?
What is Identity Theft? ID Theft happens when someone takes any
piece of your personal information, and fraudulently uses it to
obtain access to your credit, bank accounts, or to obtain
employment.
How can it happen? There are literally thousands of ways your
information can be stolen, and, as Harris County district
attorney Chuck Rosenthal knows, if it can happen to him, it is
proof that identity theft and fraud can happen to anyone.
“Rosenthal said nearly $8,000 was stolen from his account before
it was discovered […] He said that he still has problems because
of the crime — his check was refused when he tried to buy
supplies for his daughter.”
There are thousands of stories like this one, which you have
already been hearing about in your local or national news.
What can you do to protect yourself? To be proactive, here are
what the “experts” are telling you to do. Read this list
carefully, and while you do, think about what it would mean in
added time and frustration for your life:
Avoid giving out your Social Security number…Shred or destroy
bank and/or credit card information…Shred or destroy any credit
card or other direct mail offers…Create passwords containing
numbers and letters…Avoid buying or making donations via the
phone…Buy goods online only from a reputable Web site…Install a
computer firewall at home… Read the privacy statements for all
your accounts and your bank’s liability clauses…Check your
credit report more frequently… Use only one credit card for
purchases… Avoid shopping online… Update your computer virus
protection daily… Install Spyware software on your computer to
be sure that you’re not accidentally having your keystrokes
recorded… Drop your mail in the blue post boxes, not in your
mailbox… Don’t leave mail in your mailbox overnight or on
weekends… While you’re at it, sign up for a locked mailbox,
because you can’t trust that your mail will stay in your
mailbox… The list goes on…and on…and on…
The “experts” are telling you to rearrange your entire life to
proactively defend yourself against Identity Theft. However,
what no one is telling you is this:
There is no 100% guarantee that your information won’t be used.
No matter what you do, you are as likely a target for Identity
Theft as any other person you know.
Approximately 2,500 Washington County (Maryland) Board of
Education employees discovered this when their Social Security
numbers, names, birth dates and other private information were
accidentally posted on the school system’s web site for up to 45
days during 2004.
Consumer Reports states, “It is an equal-opportunity crime,
affecting victims of all races, incomes, and ages. Overall, more
than 33 million Americans, about 1 in 6 adults, say they have
had their identities used by someone else sometime since 1990.”
There is good news If you become a victim of Identity Theft, you
basically have two choices. You can try to handle it on your
own, or you can let a professional help you.
If you try to handle it on your own, you might try to contact
the Better Business Bureau (BBB). A visit to the BBB’s web site
reveals this statement:
“If your complaint is against the identity thief, it is unlikely
that the BBB can assist you. We urge you to report the identity
theft to the Federal Trade Commission.
So you visit the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) web site,
where you read the statement: “The FTC serves as the federal
clearinghouse for complaints by victims of Identity Theft. While
the FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems, your
complaint helps us investigate fraud, and can lead to law
enforcement action.”
In other words, the BBB and FTC will give you information on how
to spend 200 hours and $1400, and will let you report
information to them which can “lead to law enforcement action.”
Beyond that, you’re on your own, because they will not work to
restore your individual credit. But they will send you a 25 page
book with some very helpful information. Good luck.
This is not to fault the BBB or FTC. It’s only to say that they
do not have the resources to, on a daily basis, help over 27,000
people restore their good name and credit. Clearly, Americans
need a different kind of help to resolve this issue.
Identity Theft Insurance? Several companies, including Citibank
and the three credit repositories, are offering different kinds
of credit monitoring services. You have probably seen the very
funny Citibank ads, promoting the protection of your information
from thieves, and as a result of the ID Theft epidemic, Citibank
now offers protection for their credit cards. This is an
excellent idea, but credit card fraud only accounts for
approximately 40% of Identity Theft cases.
What about the other 60% of identity theft cases? Well, most
often, they happen when someone is using your name to obtain
credit or employment. The three credit bureaus have stepped in
to offer you credit monitoring services, which will let you
track what is going on with your credit on a daily, weekly, or
monthly basis. This way, if your information is being used by
someone you don’t know, you will know about it the day it
happens and, ideally, you’ll be able to do something about it.
The cost ranges from $4.95/month to $19.95/month. With these
services, you’re generally still on your own to get the issue
resolved, but hopefully the early detection will help you be
able to resolve the issue in less than 200 hours, and with less
than $1,400.00.
Another company has stepped in, because they have seen this
trend, and the need that consumers have for protection from
identity theft. Kroll Worldwide is the world’s foremost risk
consulting company. They’ve been responsible for things like:
Tracking Saddam Hussein’s money after the first Gulf War,
creating an evacuation plan for the Sears Tower and many of the
world’s tallest buildings, and handling high profile cases such
as the Enron debacle.
Kroll has created a product which not only monitors credit on a
daily basis, and (like the credit repositories) gives you credit
reports in a way that you can understand them, but they also
assign a personal licensed investigator to you, who will do the
work along side of you, to get your credit and identity restored
and to track down the thief who committed the crime. This saves
you time and money
Identity Theft shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, many
state and federal law enforcement agencies are predicting that
the problem will get worse before it gets better. Other
companies are sure to follow the lead of Kroll in providing
Identity Theft solutions. Probably no other company will be able
to match the background and experience of a company like Kroll,
but they will create similar products to help consumers, and
within the next 3-5 years, Identity Theft protection will become
an important part of the insurance-type products we use to
protect ourselves on a daily basis.
In short, what the experts aren’t telling you is this:
There is no guaranteed way to protect your information,
In an advanced age of rapid and electronic banking and
communication, your information is publicly available to anyone
who wants to find it,
If you’ve been a victim before, you’re more likely to become a
victim again, and
Identity Theft, as a crime, is here to stay.
Changing the way that you do things reduces the likelihood that
you will become a victim, but you have no way of being sure that
your information will stay your information.
The real state of affairs today is that you are walking down
that dark street on a windy night, and someone robs you, but you
don’t know it, or feel it, for days, weeks, or months.
Having Identity Theft protection with highly qualified companies
like Kroll is like walking down that street, knowing that you
have a highly trained personal bodyguard watching your back and
walking by your side.
