Military Personnel and Families and Identity Theft
As a member of the U.S. Military and away from your usual posting, you should consider placing an “Active Duty Alert” on your credit report. This alert will help to minimize your risk of identity theft while your deployed. A persons credit report contains the most vital personal information, including your home address, how you pay your bills, whether you have been sued, arrested or filed for bankruptcy. It is routine for banks, insurers, employers, utility companies and businesses to use the information in your credit report to evaluate your application for a mortgage, credit card, car loan, cell phone and much more. With you away, perhaps on the other side of the world, identity thieves have a perfect opportunity to use your personal information to open new accounts in your name. The thieves will most probably not pay the bills and the delinquent accounts show up in your personal credit report.Â
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Fraudulent and inaccurate information may affect your ability to get a loan, rental housing, car insurance or credit card when you return to the U.S. or long after your return. This is why we suggest you place an active duty alert because according to the Federal Trade Commission, the alert requires creditors and businesses to verify your identity before issuing credit or opening an account in your name. The active duty alert makes it much more difficult for the identity thief to use your personal information in an illegal way. The active duty alert will last for one year unless you ask to have it removed sooner. If your deployment exceeds one year you may place another alert.
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Amendments to the Fair Crediting Reporting Act allow you to place the active duty alert.  To place the alert or remove it, just call the toll free number of one of the nationwide consumer reporting companies, and they are Equifax, Experian, or Trans Union. These reporting companies will ask for meaningful proof of identity and could include your Social Security number, your name, address and other identifying information.
- Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; quifax dot com
- Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); experian dot com
- TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; transunion dot com
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You only need to contact one of the above companies to place your alert because the company you call is required to contact the other two. The other two will now place their own alerts on their version of your credit report. Contact information could change before your alert expires and then you would have to update it. When the active duty alert is in place, your name gets removed from the nationwide consumer reporting companies’ marketing lists for pre-screened or preapproved offers of credit and insurance, for two years.Â
You may ask to have your name placed on the lists, if you want, before deployment. Please realize that your friends and family know for quite some time that your going to be deployed and one of them could, without knowing it, say something that gets back to an identity thief. Imagine what the thief could do with your identity while you’re gone for an entire year. Protect your identity, because identity theft is real and growing in America.
Do you want to learn about Identity Theft Prevention & Identity Theft Protection. Stop Identity Theft with LifeLock. LifeLock can guarantee identity theft never happens to you. To see how lifelock identity theft protection works
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Randy Vezina
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/military-personnel-and-families-and-identity-theft-493905.html
Have all you Military Families seen this Warning????
American Forces Press Service
>
> WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 – The American Red Cross is warning military
> spouses about a new identity-theft scam that targets family members
of
> deployed troops.
>
> The Red Cross was alerted of the scam earlier this month, said
Devorah
> Goldburg of the Red Cross.
>
> The scam involves a person with an American accent calling a military
> spouse, identifying herself as a representative of the Red Cross, and
> telling the spouse that her husband was hurt in Iraq and was
medically
> evacuated to Germany. The caller then says that doctors can't start
> treatment until paperwork is completed, and that to start the
paperwork
they
> need the spouse to verify her husband's social security number and
date of
> birth.
>
> It is hard to determine how many spouses have been targeted by this
scam,
> Goldburg said, as there are many ways for spouses to report problems
like
> this. However, one confirmed report was enough for the Red Cross to
act,
she
> said.
>
> "We know that it happened to one person; it was probably going to
happen
to
> others, and we wanted to be prudent and alert people," she said.
>
> American Red Cross representatives typically do not contact military
members
> or dependents directly and almost always go through a commander or
first
> sergeant, according to a Red Cross news release. Military family
members
are
> urged not to give out any personal information over the phone if
contacted
> by unknown individuals, including confirmation that their spouse is
> deployed.
>
> In addition, Red Cross representatives contact military members or
> dependents directly only in response to an emergency message
initiated by
a
> family member, the news release said. The Red Cross does not report
any
type
> of casualty information to family members; the Defense Department
will
> contact families directly about family members' injuries.
>
> It is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, for
a
> person to fraudulently pretend to be a member of, or an agent for,
the
> American Red Cross for the purpose of soliciting, collecting, or
receiving
> money or material, according to the news release. Any military family
member
> that receives such a call is urged to report it to their local family
> readiness group or military personnel flight.
>
> [Web Version:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=46232
My sister is an Army wife, I'll be sure to let her know. Thanks!!
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good to know.
thank you
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Thanks. I will make sure that my son is not taken advantage of while he is away.
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i didnt hear about that,but thanks for telling me since i am a armywife,that could happen to me.but i know better than the red cross contacting a family member about the solider getting hurt so id be like isnt this the deparment of defense's job not yours,if he really got hurt they would have called not you,and further more they would not need to ask for his social security number or birthdate or any other information since they have it all,good bye.and then i would call his commander with the phone number and the persons name and have them investigated and possible put in prision if caught
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It is absolutely amazing how low people will sink. I am ashamed that someone in the US would be such a traitor.
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Yes I had seen this. It's sickening.
This is why you should attend those meetings about proper casualty notification! And FRG meetings.
Someone from the unit is required to notify you. If your spouse is injured they are supposed to be in ACU's and come to the house — although I have seen it happen that the LTC's wife showed up and the CPT called.
If they are kia you will have a Chaplain, the Commander and a caualty assistance officer at your door in Class A's.
If someone calls you on the phone remain calm and state — I will need to call the unit to verify this information. Then call the CO or RD commander/1SG. (equivalant).
This is why you MUST know your spouses's information! Social Security Number, Unit, Commander, 1SG, FRG liason number/leader, Chaplain, and Where exactly he/she is. Do NOT give this to anyone on the phone if they are truly calling from the unit they will KNOW this! (in the Army it's called an Alpha roster). Your spouse needs to provide you with an emergency data form.
Hope that helps!
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wow scary just how low some scum will sink BUT in general 99.99999 % of mil. wives would know that [a] the red cross NEVER contacts the wife etc.
But it also goes to show that not ALL the information is getting the the family left behind that this scam could have gained a foothold, IF all the wives / family members where fully informed prior to the deployment then this would not be possible to gain.
PLUS as all us mil members know we the family can not even SEE a doctor without a THEIR ssn that this is the VERY info they already have and why on earth they would be calling the wife for it would make most of us smell a rat at ONCE.
Thanks for the info and will ensure it gets onto a few boards that I am attached to.
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Military families as well as civilian families are never notified by the red Cross, the red cross is not a military department or a US government department, and therefor would not have any info or be asked to contact families. any one foolish enough to believe such a call deserves to be fooled. families are contacted by Military officials, if military families, they will get a visit from post/base personnel. I guess the liberal democrat supporters are practicing there Vietnam war era dirty games again. oh well what do you expect from such people.
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people are always trying to hurt each other in words or deeds.
Thank you for telling me. I am the KVC for my husband's unit and I can tell you that there are MANY people who target military spouses. I had one wife who gave away credit card information because the man on the phone said he was a representative of a company that her husband had ordered some stuff from and had delivered to Iraq.
While the military is doing very well at notifying spouses when the military member is injured or killed, there are many kinks in the system. My husband was shot during his third tour of Iraq and the CAC had transcribed my number wrong. Since my husband was undergoing surgery at the time he couldn't call me. Needless to say, I was upset. We have since double and triple checked all phone numbers for all of our spouses.
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22 Marine wife
thanks for the Heads-Up. i'll tell my uncle about it.
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I did hear about that this morning on CNN. Thanks
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