Identity Theft and Fraud: The Importance of Awareness

Any form of theft is a violation to the law. It causes infringement to the right of an individual, an organization or even a group of companies. Moreover, for every violation there is a corresponding sanction.

Majority of the people are aware about it. However, only few can understand regarding this matter. There is a necessity for clarification because it can bring so much impact to several aspects of both the business and the group of individuals concerned.

Are you aware that there is also the so-called identity theft and fraud that happens in the web world? With the advent of technology, where everything almost functions through computer technology, there is a lot of falsification that can happen.

Identity theft on its strictest sense refers to stealing of your personal data. These data are usually found in your typical identification card. The data will constitute your SSS number, license number, credit card and also your bank account number as well as your mother’s maiden name. In other words, if all of this necessary information will be stolen from you, they can also perform transactions using your identity.

Identity theft and fraud indeed ruins your personal privacy. This is something serious because it can bring risk to your life also. You do not even know if someone is planning against you or your property.

The worse thing is that, traditional identification card is not in the line anymore. Almost all the transactions already pass through the computers and even the identification cards. It is easier to steal your identity through computer access because of its being accessible to the public.
You should secure yourself at all times. Be sure that you are always ready if somebody will take your identity. It is a fact that it is quite difficult to do this primarily because everything is out of your control.

Bear in mind that you are responsible of making significant actions in order to prevent your identity from being taken away from you by other users. Do not let them benefit from the fruits of your labor.

You should always beware of the people that are expert in terms of identity theft and fraud. They know all of the tactics and strategies in stealing your identity. Some of these people even study all the tricks that they can do for them to execute the crime clean.

Yes, the identity theft and fraud can be both considered crime. Fraud usually happens after somebody steals your identity, because it allows him to manipulate and execute with his illegal actions using your personal information.

Your personal identity can be a greatest tool also for deceiving other people. This will particularly happen if the business transaction will happen computer to computer. So many people are becoming wealthy with this fraudulent act.

You should not loose hope because there are still possible means that you can do to prevent yourself from being a victim of these identity theft and fraud. It will also vary depending on the place where you are.

If you are at boarding, do not trust too much with your roommates. Make sure that you keep all your personal data properly. It is not good if you will be exposing your entire personal identity o your roommates. Better if you will be sending or getting your letters in the nearest post office in your place than leave it into the mailbox at your gates. You can also crumple and destroy all the unnecessary forms that will include your personal data immediately so that others will not have an access to this anymore.

If you are at work, you can refer to some agencies that can guarantee you for the security of your personal data. Do not forget to confirm if your personal data is held safely. Make sure that when making business transactions, avoid trusting other people especially those that ask your personal information via phone. You can verify if it concerns business matters or any legal operation.

Likewise, in your computers avoid posting too much information regarding your personal identity. Exposing yourself too much to the public is not advantageous. Do not cause a menace to your life.

If you’re reading this article you’ve probably heard the term phishing and you may be wondering exactly what that is. That’s exactly what this article is going to explain. I’m going to tell you what phishing is, what to look out for, and why it’s important to be on the lookout for it and make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

I’m going to give you an example of what phishing is by creating a scenario that people run into everyday. You’re at home, you turn on the computer and decided to check some e-mails. You’re going through your messages one by one and you come across a message from your bank that says “there has been fraudulent activity with your account. Please login to update your account information.” You click on a link in the e-mail to go to your bank’s website, you fill out all the required information name, address, phone number, bank account number, Social Security number, password etc. then you hit submit and think to yourself I wonder what kind of fraudulent activity they were talking about I hope it’s all taken care of now.

If the above scenario happened to you your problems would not be taken care of in fact they would just be starting because the above scenario is an example of one type of phishing scam. The official looking e-mail that you received is from a con artist and the link that you clicked in the e-mail took you to a cloned page of your bank’s website. The website may look just like your bank’s website but was put there by a con artist to capture all of that sensitive personal information that you just entered.

With all of that information, your bank account number, passwords, Social Security number etc. this criminal can do all sorts of things that will make your life miserable. They can drain your bank account, they can take out loans or open lines of credit in your name and run up huge bills that will never be paid. If they get information like a Social Security number or driver’s license number a criminal can assume your identity, go on a crime spree, and any paper trail created in the commission of these crimes will lead to you because they are doing everything in your name.

To prevent this type of thing from ever happening to you, the first big clue you should pick up on is a bank or any other organization asking you to click a link in an e-mail that takes you to a page to update personal information. If a bank or other organization needs you to update information they would have you go to their website by typing the URL directly into your Internet browser bar and then logging onto their site with your username and password. They would never have you click a link that takes you to a page that asks you to fill out this type of sensitive information.

This type of phishing scam is all too common and happens to unsuspecting people every day. These criminals will either use your information as described above or they may even sell it to other criminals to use for any number of various crimes. Phishing is just one way that these crooks can gather your information and steal your identity. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America and the best way to fight this crime is to prevent it from ever happening to you in the first place. Learning to spot a phishing scam will help but it’s a good idea to learn more ways to prevent identity theft from happening to you.

Three Identity Theft Protection Programs Reviewed

In the marketplace for ID Theft Protection, three companies are taking the lead. Invisus Direct, Wells Fargo and PrePaid Legal/Kroll, Inc. On the surface, all three companies seem to offer an almost identical product, but beneath the surface, significant differences emerge.

Invisus Direct primarily offers protection against online ID theft, through securing your computer with software which protects you from such predators, and insures you against ID Theft even if it happens in the offline world. If you already have strong PC protection from another software vendor, like McAfee or Norton, or you own a Mac, you may not need the protection that Invisus offers for around $14.99 per month, per computer.
Wells Fargo offers ID Theft protection, with $10,000 in ID Theft insurance to cover the costs of restoring your identity if it is stolen. Like Invisus, the usual suspects are monitored, such as your credit reports etc.

PrePaid Legal/Kroll, Inc. offers ID Theft protection that monitors your credit report, the use of your Drivers’ License #, your medical records, and your Social Security #. The subscription costs $12.95 per month, but here is where PrePaid Legal/Kroll, Inc., differs from the other two programs.

With Invisus and Wells Fargo, if your identity is stolen, they provide you with a do-it-yourself pack, which contains form letters that you have to send to every financial organization with whom you have dealings, explaining the theft and attempting to remedy the situation. On average, the amount of time this takes is 600 hours. PrePaid Legal/Kroll have a different solution. You sign over a Limited Power of Attorney to them, and THEY spend the 600 hours sorting out the mess.

From my perspective, this tips the balance in favor of PrePaid Legal/Kroll, Inc., though if computer security is your primary concern, you might also consider Invisus.

Interested in developing an identity protection plan? It is highly suggested that with the advances of technology rapidly growing, protecting oneself along with family is absolutely crucial to remaining safe for the years to come. For some numbers to get your brain rolling, the FTC estimates that 10 million Americans are affected by identity theft every single year costing more than $50 billion. If that doesn’t get you thinking, I don’t know what will.

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The most recent develops as of late is that children are being affected by identity theft a lot more than ever expected. The problem with this is that the child’s credit becomes ruined before the child even knows what credit means! This is the worst-case scenario and, according to the FTC, this is becoming much more common these days than ever before.

This new form of theft is known as Child Identity Theft. This is when a theif manages to steal a child’s social security number and uses it for whatever it is they want (usually results in the sale of the number to a foreign country). It is near impossible to discover that your child’s identity has been stolen. Parents usually discover this fact when they attempt to open an account for their child at a bank. The child’s identity could have been stolen years ago. This is why it’s very important that you think about setting up an identity protection plan for you and your family.

Identity Lookout will enroll you for your first 30 days free of charge for a limited time only. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of because you can cancel at any time. Do not allow yourself to become a victim to identity theft. Take action today and protect your family with Identity Lookout.

Part 4 (Excerpt)

FHA financing why you should work with a broker: 4% appreciation over the last 17 years

You mentioned earlier that property values are up 71% long term, even though we had this 50% drop. Youre talking about the average 4% appreciation per year since 1992.

Right, I did some calculations I was working on a book last year and one of these days I may get around to publishing it. Its called Real Estates Future and what we were looking at was a statistical model to be able to pick the top and the bottom of all the real estate markets. I hadnt looked at the thing for about a year until I was working with Michael the other day and I started pulling it out and going lets run the model and see where we are in regards to the market, and one of the things I looked at is the last time we saw the bottom of the market was when I was selling houses for the RTC and that was in 1992, the median home price was $76,000. Median home price now is $130,000. That means from 1992 until now it went up 71%, thats after we just saw a 50% decline. So it is up 4% per year on average, and where else are you going to get a return like that? Even if you put 3.5% down on a house you are getting a heck of a lot more than a 4% return. If you look at the internal rate of return it is significantly greater.

Right and dont buy a house because you are looking at a rate of return. If you are a first time home buyer and you can qualify for this program, if you have been living in an apartment for the last three years and you just want to have a better place for yourself and your family to live, I know right now there are a lot of fabulous houses out there for $130,000. I saw one the other day that was listed at $100,000 that I know was probably at least $250,000 a couple of years ago. Yes, four bedroom-three bath houses, we are currently working on several cases at $150,000 or below, in good parts of Maricopa county.

I ran some numbers before as well just looking at the number of homes that sold in Maricopa County in January and in that month 45% of all the houses that were sold, sold for less than $130,000. And when I had the example earlier about the median family could buy a $280,000 that was 85% of the market. 85% of all the houses that were sold in Maricopa County could be purchased by a family of four with a median income.

And you know with the loan limits the way they are with FHA with 3.5% down you can go all the way up to $358,000 and still only put 3.5% down. Pretty much anyone can get in and I would probably say that 90-95% of all the houses sold were within the FHA loan limit. That means you can still get in with 3.5% down, you dont have to have perfect a credit report, you cant have a lot of bumps on it but it doesnt have to be perfect, you dont have to have a huge FICO score.

Do they even look at FICO scores? Its complicated, the Federal Housing Administration does not have a minimum FICO score requirement, however all of the mortgage banks have overlays, so in other words nobody uses just the FHA guidelines, they have their own parameters on top of the FHA requirements. One of the main reasons why you would want to go to a broker instead of directly to your bank is they may or may not have enough overlays that will work in your favor. As a broker we have all of the major mortgage banks and we know the guidelines, so we can make anyone fit into a house that can get approved.

Right and thats always the nice thing about working with a broker because you have, lets say you have 20 banks that you are signed up with and you are FHA with all of them, so you have 20 different sets of guidelines that you can fit the borrower into. If a home buyer went to a bank and they had to do an appraisal and a credit check and all that and then they denied you, you would have to go to a different bank and they would have to do all that same stuff all over again. When you are working with a broker they do it one time and then shop it to 20 different lenders.

Yes, and I have to point something out more importantly, if you go directly to your bank and you do get declined after you have spent the money on all these different things the process is much more difficult because you have to start all over again and the reason you were declined has to be explained as well and it becomes a much more lengthy process. Where as when working with a broker you dont have to do that. We take the hit for you and we move you into the right lender of your choice…

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ANP visited a conference where online payday-lending lobbyists urged congress to reject reform, and then traveled to a small town near the Virginia-North Carolina border to learn about the experiences of a man who googled “bad credit loans” and found himself in more trouble than he bargained for.

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Everything you wanted to know about Identity Theft with computer hacker, Michael Calce, AKA Mafiaboy.

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