Are You An Identity Theft Victim?
Have you fell victim to identity theft? If you have your not alone as identity theft is now the number one crime in the U.S. There is an array of different forms of identity theft, but internet identity theft is by far the biggest problem. With hundreds of thousands of credit card transactions going through the internet on a daily basis and hackers becoming increasingly knowledgeable, it is getting to the point where it is risky to shop online.
There are several ways you can go about preventing identity theft to make sure you don’t add to an already astounding stat. One of the biggest ways people give in to identity theft is by submitting personal information through scam emails. You probably have seen them and have maybe even fell for them, but thousands of scam emails claiming to be from the IRS, banks and Paypal are circulated throughout the internet every day.
Inside these emails, they want you to submit personal information such as a credit card number or your social security number. The purpose of the email is to get you to submit your information to renew your account or check your bank status. All they are doing is trying to get your personal information and use it against you, thus identity theft.
As hard as it is to believe, it is possible for you to make purchases without truly making them. It is vital that you check your credit card statements every month and look for any unidentifiable purchases. If you make any purchases online, there is the potential for your credit card number to be hacked and for the hacker to go on a shopping spree.
Identity theft is a scary crime because it is possible for you to be a victim of it without even realizing it for several months. By that time it may be too hard to find the person. Although you are not held responsible for any of the unauthorized charges, it is a major pain to work everything out. You have to work out your credit report, replace your credit cards and even potentially close and open a new bank account.
Identity theft is just as bad of an inconvenience for the credit card companies as it is for you. Every year credit cards experience losses of 50 billion dollars a year. In an attempt to solve this, many credit card companies are coming out with new software that can better detect identity theft and internet identity theft. Some software now checks for unusual purchases, such as large expenditures in a short amount of time.
While there are various ways you can fall victim to identity theft, internet identity theft has become increasingly troubling over the past few years. With a rise into the number one crime in the U.S., it is vital that you are careful when purchasing or submitting any personal information because you never know if you may be the next victim of identity theft.
David Tanguay
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/are-you-an-identity-theft-victim-121703.html
What is the probability of me being an identity theft victim?
My school sent me a letter stating that my social security # and other information was compromised resulting from a stolen computer. I have called on of the top 3 credit companies and issued an initial alert. What other things should i do to prevent myself from being vulnerable to identity theft?
Depending on the information that was stolen you might need to change your online passwords to financial sites (banks, credit cards).
Social Security gives one access to perform loan fraud and so your calling the big 3 was the most important thing.
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Flip a coin if heads…your identity has been stolen.
if tails…you identity has been stolen.
oh yeah and one quesiton…how do you manage to get points without answering questions!!!
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If you've issued a fraud alert on all major credit agencies then anyone applying for credit must be able to call you via your listed telephone number and verify you are the one making the purchase… this can be a pain in the butt… but good if you have been a victim.
I would personally look into suing the school for negligence… depending on the circumstances under which your information was "stolen"… ie, if it was stolen due to their negligence to have appropriate security policies, procedures, etc.. then you could be nicely compensated for the trouble… so make sure you keep a record of any and all damages suffered.
Unfortunately, there is not much else you can do. You could certainly alert your credit card providers and your financial institutions .. they can alert you to large purchases or withdrawals… etc…
Good Luck
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I learned today that identity theft happens in 1 out of every 4 people. Here is a very useful link that tells you how to report and other information http://idtheft.about.com/od/youridentityisstolen/a/Identity_Theft.htm
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Never use you reel identitty, maek won up, like wat I is, dat whey wen you get pul by polis they no deport youse, unles you liek man I no hoo he steel ident off paedophile and Polis com round and beet him up, dat in mi cuntery, in Englant tat no hapen,
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Check you credit report, Yahoo has one free to check on everything under you name. If there are any unknown accounts, that's the alert. Contact that company/bank and freeze those accounts. By the way, keep that letter from school and as future reference. Make school to post any response to this incident and additional security measure to ensure the privacy act.
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I would be very concerned. CNN amongst almost every news publication paper and tv station have done reports on ID Theft. They say people are are careful and didn't have their information compromised like you did will result in 1 out of 4 people becoming a victim.
Here is the bad news:
1. Per reports, it does not involve just your credit anymore, they are taking your info and using it to get a Drivers Lic in your name and commit crimes (people have actually got arrested and had to prove they did not commit the crime in other states, cities, or countries)
2. They take it and file medical claims which has resulted in people losing their health insurance and unable to get new health insurance because of the severity of the claims that were placed under their name
3. Job history – anything they do can be a negative impact on any job you try to get or school you want to attend
4. the list goes on and on
5. ON a recent CNN Interview of a criminal who steals identities, the theif said he would do it again and again. They make a lot of money, and only 5% are ever caught. So the risk was low, and the reward very high compaired to other crimes
6. ID Theft criminals usually only receive a slap on the hand. Why? because the jails/prisons are over crowded and only want people who commit hard crimes, ID theft is considered a small crime because no one is ever physically hurt. It is usually always committed over the internet.
This is just some of the facts, I would highly suggest enrolling into a program that does not cost a lot considering what it does for you. If your identity is stolen, they will do almost all the work for you to restore it. (If you did this yourself they say an average person spends 600 hours of time and 2500.00 in their own money to get everything fixed)
Check out http://www.dontgowithoutit.com
The company who provides this sends you a monthly email to let you know what is going on with your identity. They also send a yearly credit report and score, and tell you how to improve your credit. The company was the one the gov't brought in to unravel enron, and track down sadams finances just to name a few.
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you can order a device called "IDVault". It costs about $40. bucks and keeps all your passwords in it(outside your computer). You plug it into the usb port and never have to type in passwords again.
Also the thing you did with the credit bureau was good. There is a good product you can purchase from Equifax that not only monitors your credit but it blocks thieves from stealing your identity. On top of that it provides you with $20,000. dollars worth of id theft insurance in case you need a lawyer for that problem.
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